Louisiana’s cybersecurity leadership bench reflects a mix of banking, healthcare, satellite communications, consulting, and executive security strategy. The women in this feature show how cyber leadership in the state is built through both formal security ownership and adjacent roles that shape enterprise resilience, risk management, and business trust. Some are leading security directly inside regulated institutions, while others are bringing cybersecurity depth into technology architecture, network services, and healthcare risk leadership. Together, they reflect a state where cybersecurity influence is growing through practical execution, operational discipline, and leaders who can connect security with broader organizational priorities. It is a bench defined by range, adaptability, and strong grounding in real-world environments.
Shannon LeBlanc — AVP / ISO, Gulf Coast Bank
Shannon LeBlanc is AVP / ISO at Gulf Coast Bank, where she now leads information security after previously serving there as an Information Security Analyst. Her work includes identifying vulnerabilities, reviewing procedures and systems, documenting audit programs, issuing formal audit reports, communicating findings to leadership, and helping improve the bank’s IT control environment. Before joining Gulf Coast Bank, she spent more than 16 years at HCA Healthcare in security-related roles, including extensive responsibility for implementing information security procedures across hospitals, surgery centers, and ambulatory locations, supporting audits, leading risk assessments, coordinating incident response, and guiding disaster recovery testing. She stands out for her long experience in highly regulated environments and for a leadership style grounded in secure policy enforcement, staff education, and practical risk reduction.
Julia Breaux — BISO / Deputy CISO, RUSH University Medical Centre
Julia Breaux is Business Information Security Officer and Deputy CISO at Rush University Medical Center, bringing more than a decade of cybersecurity leadership experience across healthcare systems, technology firms, and financial institutions. Before joining Rush, she served as a Healthcare Senior Manager at Crowe Healthcare Risk Consulting and held earlier roles in internal controls, compliance, consulting, and audit at VENYU, Postlethwaite & Netterville, and Deloitte. Her background spans information security engineering and operations, governance, risk management, compliance, identity and access management, and audit. She stands out for the way she combines technical security leadership with a strong foundation in control, assurance, and healthcare-focused risk management.
Victoria Sandifer — Director, Network Services & Cybersecurity, Globalstar
Victoria Sandifer is Director, Network Services & Cybersecurity at Globalstar, where she leads in an environment shaped by network reliability, communications infrastructure, and enterprise security. Her background is rooted in network engineering, wireless, IP telephony, routing, switching, firewalls, VPNs, and network troubleshooting, with earlier experience at POOLCORP and AGJ Systems & Networks. Across those roles, she worked on wireless and IPT deployments, branch monitoring, reporting systems, Cisco-based network design, client consulting, and systems maintenance. She stands out for bringing deep network and infrastructure expertise into a leadership role that bridges operational connectivity and cybersecurity.
Amanda Hartle — Managing Director, Chief Architect, Fiddlers
Amanda Hartle is Managing Director and Chief Architect at Fiddlers, where she helps organizations navigate cybersecurity, product security, and governance, risk, and compliance challenges. Her current role follows senior executive security leadership posts including CISO & CIO at Prove and Chief Security Officer and Chief Information Officer at Relativity, along with earlier experience in cyber response, digital forensics, professional services, and consulting at Zurich Insurance, Symantec, Dell Secureworks, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Guidance Software. She also serves as an adjunct professor at Tulane University and has held board and advisory roles tied to the broader cyber community. She stands out for the breadth of her leadership across security, technology, forensics, and advisory work, as well as her ability to translate complex technical risk into business-relevant action.
Where Louisiana’s Cyber Leadership Keeps Expanding
The leaders in this Louisiana feature reflect a cybersecurity ecosystem built through practical leadership in banking, healthcare, communications, and executive advisory work. Their roles differ in title and scope, but each sits close to the decisions that shape resilience, trust, compliance, and operational continuity. That matters because strong cyber leadership is not only about defending systems. It is also about building programs, guiding organizations through risk, and helping teams make better decisions in complex environments. Louisiana’s leadership bench shows that this kind of influence is taking root across multiple sectors at once.
Explore more profiles of the amazing women shaping cybersecurity across numerous industries in our Women’s Month collection.