Associated Students of Whatcom Community College’s (ASWCC) Women In Cyber Security Club, or WiCyS, creates a space where computer information systems (CIS) and cybersecurity students build community despite the dual-edged sword of Damocles axing federal funding for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, and shifting national priorities around government-led cybersecurity.
“Beyond the Stereotypes” Event
ASWCC WiCyS recently hosted “Beyond the Stereotypes: Redefining Careers in Cybersecurity,” which welcomed more than 30 students, faculty, and community members from across Whatcom County for a panel with three cybersecurity professionals. The guiding question was “What is the most surprising skill you learned in your career that is important in your role in cybersecurity?”
The ASWCC WiCyS President, Neko Wolf, mediated the panel discussion and subsequent Q&A. Wolf is taking classes towards her Bachelor of Applied Science in IT Networking-Cyber Security while working for a nonprofit called Cloud Security Alliance and studying for her Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge. While mediating the event, Wolf was one of many experts in the room.
The audience represented a wide cross-section of Bellingham. Attendees included Bellingham Technical College’s Raspberry Pi club for computer science, electronics and programming students. Participants also joined from Western Washington University, a local nonprofit called Cascade STEAM, and more, according to ASWCC WiCyS Vice President, Dustin McClure.
“It was very clear from that attendance and from that energy that there is a strong desire to build community in these fields,” said Wolf.
Dustin McClure, ASWCC WiCyS Vice President, said that the “Beyond the Stereotypes” event was a great example of the ways to build community in the cybersecurity field. It is not just about gathering on one campus in one club, rather “for us to connect and to build a network between all of [the attending organizations] so that we can support each other.”
The panel was so well-attended by curious audience members that the discussion lasted 45 minutes longer than scheduled. “Everyone who was there was still like in it and asking questions, and the panelists were not ready to stop,” Wolf said.
ASWCC WiCyS is a chapter of the global WiCyS nonprofit that aims to “recruit, retain and advance women in cybersecurity to build a robust cybersecurity workforce,” envisioning “a world where cybersecurity workforce is an inclusive space.”
According to the ISC2 2023 CyberSecurity Workforce Study, there is a significant gap in the cybersecurity workforce. Recruiting and training women is critical to filling this need. WiCyS reported via Dice.com that less than 25 percent of the cybersecurity workforce are women, although women make up 49.7 percent of the world population according to World Bank Open Data. WiCyS’s 2023-2024 Annual Report uncovered that exclusionary practices are pivotal in preventing women from fulfilling the needs of the industry.
In 2024, Wolf traveled to the Women in Cyber Security Conference in Nashville, Tenn. She represented WCC as one of 133 student chapters present at the internationally attended event. She networked with professionals, connected with other students, and brushed elbows with thousands of other people.
There’s a strong need for community in an otherwise stereotyped-as-insular degree field. In reality, CIS and cybersecurity operations are highly collaborative and always take place in a team setting.
ASWCC WiCyS has around a dozen semi-regular members and is always recruiting for more. Currently, despite the club’s name suggesting that it is only for women, two of the three executive officers are men. This is something that Wolf sees as a benefit. “Because facilitating diversity in cybersecurity takes all of the people who are present, working towards that goal,” Wolf said.
In conversation with McClure, her vice president, Wolf said, “If you guys weren’t doing this work like I certainly wouldn’t be able to do it all on my own.”
Cybersecurity in the News
When not convening students and professionals to increase accessibility to cybersecurity careers in Whatcom County, WiCyS members gather weekly to discuss news in the cybersecurity field, check in with each other, and get help for classes. Wolf says meetings where they support each other are “a really big part of our community building.”
McClure said he would bring up how the Trump Administration froze funding for Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) programs related to election security, and prevention of misinformation and disinformation prevention, as reported by AP News on March 10, 2025.
“There’s some really crazy stuff going on,” McClure says.
Over 100 jobs have been effectively eliminated from CISA through cancelled contracts, including at least one entire Red Team, according to a LinkedIn post by former employee Christopher Chenoweth. Red Teams are defined by IBM as a group of “security professionals who test an organization’s security by mimicking the tools and techniques used by real-world attackers,” and are critical to the systems testing methods that agencies use to safeguard information.
Humphreys also notes that the Trump Administration suspended cybersecurity operations against Russia earlier this month, as reported by CNN.
Wolf, who also teaches a Zumba class in addition to juggling cybersecurity professional responsibilities, recalled that a student asked her whether eliminating international cybersecurity operations means that there is not a need for cybersecurity professionals.
Wolf borrowed an analogy from a coworker and said, “if somebody opens the door of the hen house, it’s not like you suddenly don’t have a fox to deal with…it actually increases the need for security in a lot of ways.”
McClure noted that other people will need to “pick up the slack,” recommending local government, private industries, or private citizens. Still, shifting federal priorities is cause for concern. McClure asked, “how do we keep people from hacking into the Pentagon if we’re not watching out for one of our adversaries?”
Sweeping policy reform speaks more to trying to influence the cybersecurity environment, Wolf hypothesized. Functional employees will be needed everywhere, as long as computer information systems and cloud technology exist.
“We have this separation [between managers or authorities and cybersecurity departments] and we try to inform people and be cohesive, but on the ground, the people who are doing that work are still going to do it,” Wolf said.
Political posturing will not have an impact on the need for CIS/Cybersecurity professionals who can work together as a team, communicate effectively, and succeed in live scenarios, just where the funding and employers are.
“There are lots of people doing things on the ground level right now, but it could be interesting to see how it continues to play out,” McClure said.
Funding for Travel Teams
The lingering question appears to be who will step up to fill the gaps created by de-prioritized cybersecurity on the national level.
For ASWCC WiCyS, funding comes primarily from NSYTE, the National Cybersecurity Training & Education Center hosted at Whatcom Community College.
The club uses funding to support their participation in cybersecurity competitions such as Pacific Rim Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (PRCCDC) and CyberForce. Last year, members of ASWCC WiCyS attended CyberForce in Chicago, Ill. CyberForce is a critical infrastructure defense competition where students from around the country convene for two days of 8-hour competition followed by a one-day job fair.
At CyberForce, WCC was one of fewer than 5 community college teams, according to Wolf. The competition saw 73 teams participate. Wolf noted that many of the university teams are sending masters students or PhD candidates, or “have serious funds to facilitate training a team.”
This disparity does not stop ASWCC WiCyS’s team from bringing their A-game. Wolf and her team see it as an invaluable opportunity to network with other teams and industry professionals.
At PRCCDC in Lacey, Wash., McClure recalled there being representatives from the National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), SpaceX, and other government and military agencies.
“The CIA just walked in and started watching us when we were doing stuff,” said Humphreys. The moment made the competition more real.
At competitions, teammates must work together to defend their computer system from infiltration by external hackers. Competitions function as a simulation of actual risks that future professionals might have to combat. To force teams to face an effective threat, the “hackers” for the competition are actual professionals who work in the field.
Humphreys said, “You’re defending the system and then the offensive [team] was the National Guard’s Cyber Security team who would then penetrate your system and then afterwards, at the end of the [competition], they come in and kind of explain what they did.”
Although it may just be a regular day in the office for the National Guard team practicing protocols, this opportunity is invaluable for students to converse with experts. Humphreys said they “kind of give you an idea of their mindset and plan and how they would defend a system,” which is one of the many benefits of attending large regional or national competitions.
Concerningly, the ASWCC WiCyS funding stream from NSYTE comes from a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant. The grant establishes WCC as an Advanced Technological Education National Center as part of an initiative to designate different community colleges around the country as national leaders in different technical skills. These national centers make crucial technical skills education accessible to diverse students.
According to GovTribe.com, “frequently awarded entities include colleges and universities, with a notable emphasis on minority-serving institutions, community colleges, and organizations focused on STEM education research.”
With the Trump Administration gutting funding for the National Science Foundation and examining all grants that reference terms like “diverse” and “underrepresented,” as reported by NPR, beneficiaries of NSYTE funds might be yet another victim of Executive Order 14151 on “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing.”
This could impact ASWCC WiCyS ability to further their members’ education through experiential learning, despite competitions being heavily rooted in practical, technical skills that are a documented need in the current workforce.
This article was originally published in the Winter 2025 magazine, which is now available on campus newsstands. Get your free copy while they last!
