LEADERSHIP TEAM
Who We Are
MARIA SINGH
PRESIDENT
Maria Singh is a Cybersecurity Engineer at T-Mobile. She has a passion and a desire to see young women empowered, encouraged, and challenged to become the best version of themselves by appropriating all the educational and mentoring resources currently available. One such amazing resource is the professional non-profit organization, Women in Securit. She believes that having equal access to high-quality education is the equalizer that spans race or gender. During her time as President, Maria is hoping to provide a chance to pursue and help equip the many young women in our community to look forward to a bright future.
Additionally, Maria has a rich experience in volunteer endeavors as a Couch and Mentor of many Kansas City organizations such as FIRST robotics, STEM Alliance, Minddrive, and Cyber Patriots. During Maria's time as VP of WIS-KC, she hopes to use her experience and partner relationships to build upon what has been achieved.
"Chance or Fortune Favors the Prepared Mind"- Louis Pasteur, French Microbiologist/Chemist: Maria's favorite quote.
Jennifer Harmon
VICE PRESIDENT
Jennifer Harmon is a technologist at heart with a passion for improving diversity in the field of technology. She was previously a leader for Geek Squad Summer Academy in 2010, hosting a 10 week-long technology summer camp targeting teens in underserved and minority communities from across the country. Currently, Jennifer is a Product Owner at Cerner working to increase interoperability within the Veterans Affairs Electronic Health Record Modernization project. She is ardent about improving the security of healthcare data and is working towards her ISC2 HCISPP and CompTia Security+ certifications. Jennifer looks forward to growing with the WiSKC community by serving as the Vice President in 2022.
KRISTEN cOTTEN
SECRETARY
Kristen Cotten recently changed her career and is new to the field. She was a former professional skydiving instructor for a decade before deciding to pivot into IT. Within the last two years, Kristen completed a second bachelor's degree in IT, obtained several industry-relevant certifications, and landed her first role in the field as a DoD Civilian. Anyone who meets her will quickly recognize her passion, excitement, and thirst for knowledge.
Kristen is excited for her opportunity as WIS-KC Secretary because she previously struggled with a loss of identity and sense of community when she first approached the industry. STEM career fields were not encouraged when she was younger, and even today she has noticed unique challenges within the workplace. Kristen seeks to help inspire other women by showing them there is a place for them in the infosec community. Kristen would be honored to give back to the community.
NAOMI HILL
TREASURER
Naomi Hill currently holds the position as an Account Manager specially for Approved Scan Vendors for PCI Compliance in Information Security. Naomi obtained a bachelor's in Business Management from the local university, UMKC, at the business's Bloch school. While in college, Naomi was involved in several organizations as well as being a Henry Block Scholar. She was also the president of the Ambassadors program in college, which gave her exposure to many areas of the organization.
As Treasurer of WIS-KC, Naomi is willing to accept challenges. She is responsible, edited, and ambitious. Naomi has been a consistent and participating member of WIS-KC for some time.
"Always think positive"- Naomi Hill.
pIPER WILLIAMS
COMMUNICATIONS
Piper Williams is currently a Cyber Security Tester at Deloitte Global. Piper spent two years as a Software Developer before deciding to pivot her career path into INFOSEC in August of 2019. Her primary career goal is to educate developers in elevating their craft from development to secure development.
WIS-KC made an enormous impact on Piper's life by funding her SANS GIAC (GWAPT) certification. Piper hopes to extend the same kindness, hope, confidence, passion, and happiness that WIS-KC has shown her to another during her time as Communications Chair.
"It is not often that we are granted the opportunity to assist another in attaining their goals, and I feel strongly that I need to reach out to other women, potentially inspiring her to reach for her dreams as others did for me." - Piper Williams.
MAURA MILNER
EVENTS
Maura has spent the last two years working for Imperva, a leader in cybersecurity, covering KS/MO/NE/ND/SD. In Maura's role, she helps organizations protect data and all paths to their data through application security, as well as database security. Prior to Imperva, Maura spent a decade with TouchNet selling enterprise software and integrating payment processing into higher education. At TouchNet, she focused on the compliance and security aspects of payments taken all across a college campus. Her other experiences includes E-GRC at Archer Technologies along with a myriad of support and sales roles.
Maura has received her Masters degree in Business Administration, as well as her Bachelors in Finance and Accounting both from Wichita State University. She has three grown children, ages 23, 22, and 20. In her spare time she enjoys spending time with each of her children. She also loves sports, live music, decorating, walking, and reading. Maura currently resides in the Kansas City Metro area.
LISA CHILES
MEMBERSHIP
Lisa is the Configuration Lead on the Customer Service Infrastructure Services team at ScriptPro. She leads her team to investigate, maintain and deploy configuration and compliance updates and requirements to ScriptPro customers.
Lisa started her career in the practice of Pharmacy. After 10 years of an occupation in Pharmacy, she transitioned into Healthcare IT. Lisa has spent the last 20 years focused on software and platform security compliance, software testing, and the integration of security into various development processes.