Ep. 8 Data, Diversity, & the Federal Government

May 10, 2022

Our guest today is Teddra Burgess, Senior Vice President Public Sector at Tanium. She will share her thoughts on data, diversity, and the federal government.

For years people in federal information technology have been talking about “silos” of information. One of the benefits of moving to the cloud was the possibility of removing some of this isolation. There may be other silos that may not be comprised of hard drives. For example, when you limit your technical staff to a specific profile. That just encourages sameness of thought.

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science reported that a more diverse group is more likely to outperform a more homogenous team.

We are in a world of attacks coming from every quarter. Limiting yourself to one predetermined category of technical expert will set you up for failure. Think of it this way . . . if a football team has forty quarterbacks, they will lose every game; the same is true if they have all kickers.

"It's important to frame scenarios and questions that give that candidate the opportunity to really give you an idea of their critical decision making process"

Teddra Burgess, Tanium Tweet

Last year President Biden issued an Executive Order to encourage diversity and equity in the cyber workforce. Studies show that women are 51% of the workforce, but only 24% of the cybersecurity workforce.

During the interview, Teddra Burgess stated that one way to increase recruitment is to seek candidates who exhibit curiosity, problem-solving and critical thinking abilities.

However, recruitment is the start of the transition – federal leaders should enact policies where the diverse workforce is mentored and provided with ways to understand the system to get promoted.

One way to improve skills is to participate in a group like Women In Technology. This way, a person can contact a fellow professional without worrying about other issues in a completely male-dominated networking world

If you enjoyed this podcast, you may want to listen to episode #5 Applying Quantum to Federal Challenges