North Carolina’s cybersecurity leadership strength cuts across state government, county operations, healthcare, financial services, and enterprise software. The women in this feature reflect a state where cyber leadership is tied not only to defense and compliance, but also to resilience, service delivery, risk management, and long-term institutional trust. Some are responsible for securing large public-sector environments, while others lead security for healthcare systems, regulated technology providers, and financial organizations operating in high-stakes environments. Their backgrounds also show the variety of paths that can lead to cyber leadership, from consulting and auditing to infrastructure, governance, and security operations. Together, they help explain why North Carolina continues to stand out as a meaningful center of cybersecurity influence.
Bernice Russell-Bond — State Chief Information Security Officer, North Carolina Department of Information Technology
Bernice Russell-Bond serves as State Chief Information Security Officer for the North Carolina Department of Information Technology, where she oversees the state’s cybersecurity efforts with a focus on strengthening partnerships and collaboration across state, local, and federal levels. Before stepping into the role in March 2025, she spent nearly a decade as Chief Information Security Officer at RTI International and previously ran her own IT risk management and auditing firm for nearly 20 years. Her experience spans cybersecurity operations, risk management, IT governance, incident management, and auditing, giving her a broad foundation for statewide security leadership. She stands out for combining deep private-sector and nonprofit experience with a clear emphasis on team leadership, collaboration, and cybersecurity culture.
Emily Larkin — Chief Administrative Officer & Chief Information Security Officer, Abrigo
Emily Larkin is Chief Administrative Officer & Chief Information Security Officer at Abrigo, where she leads information security, infrastructure, risk management initiatives, and regulatory and compliance programs with accountability at the executive and board levels. She previously served as Abrigo’s Chief Information Security Officer and held the same title at Sageworks, where she led the corporate information security program, business continuity and disaster recovery work, and technology-related audit and compliance initiatives, including direct reporting to the board. Earlier in her career, she held senior leadership roles at Infosys McCamish Systems that combined information security oversight with data center services, infrastructure strategy, and compliance leadership. What makes her stand out is her long track record of aligning enterprise security with growth, customer trust, and regulatory demands in financial technology environments.
Lisa Jones — Chief Information Security Officer, Wake County
Lisa Jones serves as Chief Information Security Officer for Wake County, where she has led the county’s security program since 2016. Before joining Wake County, she spent more than 17 years at Elster in increasingly senior roles, including Group Manager for Global IT Security, where she held global responsibility for infrastructure and information security, disaster recovery policy, risk and vulnerability assessments, security audits, and ISO27001 certification projects. Her earlier work also included regional infrastructure and security leadership across the Americas, along with hands-on responsibility for access control, network security, and global policy rollout. She stands out for the depth and continuity of her experience, with a career built on securing complex environments through policy, standards, operational rigor, and long-term program development.
Dee Young — Chief Information Security Officer, UNC Health
Dee Young is Chief Information Security Officer at UNC Health, where she leads efforts to protect sensitive data and critical systems while aligning security strategy with organizational goals. Her background includes prior leadership at HCA Healthcare, where she served as Division Director of Information Security for a large healthcare division and oversaw day-to-day security functions including incident response, workforce education, vulnerability management, risk assessments, intrusion prevention, regulatory compliance, forensic investigations, and business continuity and disaster recovery. Earlier roles in consulting, healthcare technology, and program leadership added experience in security audits, compliance frameworks, enterprise clinical systems, and organizational transformation. She stands out for bringing strategic risk management and operational security leadership into one of North Carolina’s most important healthcare environments.
Sophie Street — Senior Vice President, Head of Cyber Defense, SECU
Sophie Street is Senior Vice President, Head of Cyber Defense at SECU, where she leads cyber defense in a financial-services environment shaped by regulatory demands, evolving threats, and business transformation. Before joining SECU, she held senior cybersecurity leadership roles at Truist, including Head of Endpoint Security Services and Senior Cybersecurity Manager for Network Security Engineering, and earlier led incident response, cyber forensics, insider threat, and data loss prevention programs at Bank of the West. Her experience also includes close work with regulatory agencies, enterprise risk management, compliance, and control assessments across major banking environments. She stands out for her blend of operational cyber defense, risk leadership, and people-centered program building across large and complex financial institutions.
Where North Carolina’s Cyber Leadership Keeps Building
The leaders in this North Carolina feature reflect a cybersecurity ecosystem shaped by public service, healthcare resilience, financial-sector discipline, and enterprise risk leadership. Their roles may differ in scope and setting, but each one sits close to the decisions that determine how critical systems are protected, how organizations respond to change, and how trust is maintained over time. That mix of operational experience, governance depth, and executive accountability is part of what makes North Carolina such an important state for cyber leadership. As cybersecurity continues to influence everything from public infrastructure to customer-facing services, leaders like these will remain central to how the state navigates risk and growth.
Explore more profiles of the amazing women shaping cybersecurity across numerous industries in our Women’s Month collection.