Karen Peterson

Provides guidance, encouragement, and resources to help build a more engaging, supportive, and inclusive community for cybersecurity students.

• Comprehensive program encompassing 700+ hours of course materials, weekly 1:1 meetings with an industry expert mentor, 40+ real-world cybersecurity simulated mini-projects, 30+ labs that bridge theory to practice, and a penetration test capstone project
• Learned to assess, evaluate, and provide recommendations regarding the adequacy of security controls and risks posed by existing environments
• Conducted security audits and compliance gap assessments using NIST CSF, CISv8, PCI DSS, and HIPAA
• Performed risk assessments and maintained risk registers to track security vulnerabilities, likelihood, impact, owner responsibility, and risk mitigation plans
• Recommended data classification, data management, and data leak prevention capabilities to safeguard against modification, destruction, and disclosure
• Recommended AWS cloud service solution leveraging role-based access control, transaction processing, and secure data transfers to handle temporary increases in traffic flows
• Developed Zero Trust presentation to communicate to management the importance of this control
• Prepared walk-through penetration test that included reconnaissance, target identification, running scans, vulnerability identification, threat assessment, a detailed technical report, and an executive summary highlighting critical areas of concern.

• Learned and actively implements a trading process that leverages critical thinking, patience, perseverance, problem-solving, emotional maturity, collaborative learning, and continuous improvement skills.

• Raised a family until children established their independence. Pursued personal interests in areas that stimulated curiosity and tested comfort zone boundaries
• Participated in personal development courses creating greater self-awareness, resilience, focus, and articulate communication skills leading to certifications in NLP and hypnotherapy (2017 - 2018).
• Holistic Nutrition & Wellness Mentor - cured friend of several decades of painful IBS while pursuing curiosity around the biochemical impact of food on the body and self-directed studies from an online Masters of Science in Holistic Nutrition program (2013 -2017).

• Led a team of 15 marketing and merchandise individuals instrumental Consistently obtained a 25%+ annual growth rate by collaborating with a 15-person marketing and merchandise team and implementing technologies to automate and create targeted marketing initiatives
• Managed a checkout redesign project from conceptualization to finalization that directly attributed to a 200% increase in order conversion and an 80% lift in average order value
• Awarded responsibility of the Merchandise department in 2007 based on my ability to cultivate strong relationships and grew the number of active stationery vendors by 150% in 24 months encompassing more than 20,000 items
• Prepared quarterly financial modeling for marketing programs, including revenue expenditure and forecasting for CEO and board members.

• Assembled an e-commerce team that drove online channel growth from 5% to over 50% of total sales and produced a 40%+ increase in website driven sales year-over-year
• Promoted to the executive team after 2 years based on implementing successful digital marketing strategies, cultivating effective internal partnerships with shared resources, and expanding e-commerce operational capabilities while meeting budget expense targets
• Championed a checkout process redesign attributing to a 76% increase in order conversions, based on insights gained from user behavior pattern flows
• Experience with multiple marketing technology platform implementations, designed actionable reports and dashboards based on key performance indicators, managed overall administration, and delivered training and documentation for users.