Kansas’ cybersecurity leadership bench reflects a mix of higher education, banking technology, credit unions, financial-services governance, and enterprise business security. The women in this feature show how cyber leadership in Kansas is not confined to one path. Some lead formal CISO functions inside major institutions, some shape security and risk programs for regulated financial environments, and others are helping embed security into business operations and workforce development. Together, they represent a practical, governance-aware, and business-aligned view of cybersecurity leadership in the state.
Nita Awatramani — Chief Information Security Officer, Kansas State University
Nita Awatramani serves as chief information security officer at Kansas State University, where she brings extensive experience in security strategy, governance, enterprise risk management, and large-scale technology transformation. Her background spans higher education and enterprise environments, with a strong emphasis on building security maturity roadmaps, implementing audit and compliance programs, and aligning frameworks such as NIST CSF and ISO 27001 with organizational goals. Before joining Kansas State in 2025, she led security strategy and execution work at the University of Southern California and held multiple information security, infrastructure, and governance roles across Verizon, where her work touched risk management, enterprise identity and access management, compliance, procurement, and business operations. Her profile reflects a leader comfortable working across complex institutions with multiple stakeholders, competing priorities, and broad transformation agendas.
Julie Rohlena — Standards Chair/Vice Chair, Cyber Risk Institute
Julie Rohlena brings a long track record in governance, risk, and compliance across banking, telecommunications, and financial-services environments. She currently serves as standards chair and vice chair at the Cyber Risk Institute while also holding a senior leadership role at U.S. Bank, where her recent work has included senior risk and control leadership as well as information security compliance. Earlier in her career, she served as SVP, director of enterprise risk and CISO at NBH Bank, where her remit included operational risk, third-party risk, business continuity, disaster recovery, policy management, and information security leadership. Her experience across multiple lines of defense gives her a broad perspective on cyber governance, and her profile stands out for the way it connects policy, controls, resilience, and enterprise risk into one cohesive leadership track.
Amanda Taylor — Vice President of Security and Risk, DCI
Amanda Taylor leads security and risk at DCI, a technology services provider focused on community banks, bringing a background rooted in business resiliency, disaster recovery, internal audit, compliance, and operational security. Her recent leadership covers enterprise-wide GRC operations, security culture, internal audit, fraud, compliance, and resiliency, reflecting a role that sits at the intersection of technology assurance and business continuity. Before stepping into her vice president role, she managed business resiliency and audit functions, chaired emergency management and communications teams, and helped guide preparedness, audit visibility, and awareness programs. Earlier roles at Emprise Bank further reinforced her foundation in business continuity and disaster recovery planning for regulated financial environments. Her profile suggests a leader whose strengths lie in operational discipline, resilience, and translating security into dependable banking infrastructure.
Nicki Swart — Information System Security Officer, Heartland Credit Union
Nicki Swart represents a more emerging but clearly relevant cybersecurity leadership voice in Kansas, particularly in the areas of security culture, awareness, compliance, and people-centered defense. At Heartland Credit Union, she serves as information system security officer and focuses on helping organizations strengthen what she frames as the human side of cybersecurity. Her profile highlights hands-on familiarity with vulnerability management, policy development, digital forensics, and frameworks such as NIST CSF, PCI DSS, SOC 2, HIPAA, and NCUA ACET. She also teaches as an adjunct professor at WSU Tech and is active in the Wichita cybersecurity community, including chapter and leadership involvement tied to professional development and women’s advancement. She stands out as someone blending practitioner experience with education and culture-building.
Britney Kennedy — Global BISO, Cardinal Health
Britney Kennedy is based in the Kansas City area and brings a strong mix of business information security leadership, cyber operations experience, and prior security leadership in entertainment and military environments. At Cardinal Health, she has served as global business information security officer after previously leading cyber operations there. Before that, she held senior information security leadership roles at AMC Theatres, where she was responsible for security strategy, technology roadmaps, compliance, executive and board reporting, and international security initiatives. Earlier service in the U.S. Army adds another dimension to her background, including IT leadership, network operations, and communications oversight in complex operational settings. Her path shows a leader who understands both enterprise security governance and the operational realities behind it.
Monica Cole-Rowe — Chief Information Security Officer, National Association of Insurance Commissioners
Monica Cole-Rowe is one of the strongest Kansas-area financial-services cybersecurity leaders in this group, with a career centered on helping regulated institutions align security strategy with business objectives. She now serves as chief information security officer at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners after previously serving as CISO at Mazuma Credit Union and through her own consulting practice. Her experience spans information security program development, board education, incident response, and strategic planning, with a particular emphasis on making cyber risk understandable and actionable for business leaders. She has worked across community banking and financial-services settings for more than two decades, and her profile reflects both practitioner depth and a clear commitment to workforce development and cyber education.
Why Kansas’ cyber leadership story is broader than it first appears
Kansas’ cybersecurity leadership strength does not rest on one industry alone. It shows up in universities, community banking technology, credit unions, major enterprise security functions, and the regional financial-services ecosystem that stretches across the Kansas and Kansas City corridor. The women in this feature reflect that range. Some are leading institutional security programs from the top, while others are shaping compliance, resilience, awareness, and business-facing security in ways that quietly determine whether organizations can operate with trust. That breadth is exactly what makes the state’s cyber bench notable. It is not just technical depth. It is leadership that understands governance, operations, regulation, and culture all at once.
Explore more profiles of the amazing women shaping cybersecurity across numerous industries in our Women’s Month collection.