Once a year, the nation's most influential women in the information security, privacy and risk management industries convene at the Executive Women's Forum (EWF). The annual national conference aims to instill a sense of community among women of influence, power and intelligence.

This year, several female leaders in information technology from Carnegie Mellon will join the community for the seventh annual conference, September 23-25, in Scottsdale, Arizona. The university will be represented by the following attendees:

• Jennifer Burkett, director of career services and external relations at the Information Networking Institute (INI)
• Dawn Capelli, senior member of the technical staff, CERT® Program at the Software Engineering Institute
• Dena Haritos Tsamitis, director of the INI and director of education, training and outreach at Carnegie Mellon CyLab
• Barbara Laswell, technical manager and director, CERT® Program at the Software Engineering Institute
• Nancy Mead, senior member of the technical staff, CERT® Program at the Software Engineering Institute
• Priya Narasimhan, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, co-director of the CyLab Mobility Research Center, and president of YinzCam, Inc.
• Tyelisa Shields, EWF INI Fellow and master’s candidate at the INI
• Linda Whipkey, manager of corporate memberships at CyLab

Dena will address the audience at the opening reception, and Priya is a featured speaker at the conference. The title of this year's event is "Pragmatic Risk Solutions for Changing Times: Achieving More with Less." Along with guest speakers, it will include roundtable exercises, incident simulations and panel discussions on proposal-writing, compliance, security metrics, emerging technologies, vendor risk management, and the global privacy and regulatory landscape.

Tyelisa became involved in EWF when she was awarded the 2008 EWF INI Fellowship, for which she will be honored at the opening reception. The INI and CyLab have partnered with the Executive Women's Forum, sponsored by Alta Associates, to offer a fellowship to an incoming INI graduate student from a historically underrepresented population in the area of information networking and security, including women. EWF INI Fellows receive a full scholarship and are mentored by a senior-level executive in the information security field. The first EWF INI Fellow, Amy Rambhia, graduated from Carnegie Mellon in December 2008 and accepted a position as Project Manager in the Networking Group at Microsoft Corporation.

The first EWF was organized in 2003 by Alta Associates, a premier executive recruitment firm specializing in information security, IT audit, risk management and privacy. Today, the EWF gathers more than 200 high-ranking practitioners and thought leaders each year to share experiences and build trust-based relationships.