After Action Report Third annual Summit Event 2026-10-23 Microsoft Garage, Reston, Virginia

Report

CyberHERo Summit 2026: After Action Report

The third Summit in numbers: who came, who spoke and who backed it.

Event 2026-10-23 Venue Microsoft Garage, Reston, Virginia Public edition of the report prepared 2026-11-03

Colton Williams

Founder & Executive Director

Published 2026-11-09

The third CyberHERo Summit was the biggest yet: 132 registrations, 150 people on the day, 20 speakers from 13 organizations, 52 new headshots and more than $14,000 behind the program. Here is how it went, in numbers.

The headline numbers

Registered

132

tickets on 131 orders

On the day

150

speakers, volunteers and attendees

Headshots

all 52 delivered

Total in

$14,413.54

approved funds plus contributions

Donations

$4,616.39

41 gifts

Speakers

from 13 organizations

Sponsors and partners

4 sponsors, 4 community partners

Rated overall

6 of 7

said Excellent

Three years of the Summit

Elisha Angeles-Ashook founded CyberHERo in 2024 and held the first Summit that December. Each year since, the program has grown, and Microsoft has hosted all three (CyberHERo, n.d.-a).

2024

Inaugural Summit

2024-12-13, Microsoft Reston

Keynote by Diana Kelley on the leadership gap
KC7 hands-on investigation
43 one-on-one career conversations
Headshots and a social hour

2025

Second annual

2025-10-24, Microsoft Reston

More than 100 unique registrants
WiCyS keynote by Mansi Chaturvedi
Ask the CISO panel
Workshops by KC7, Microsoft and SANS; a sponsor expo

2026

Third annual

2026-10-23, Microsoft Garage, Reston

132 registrations, up from more than 100, and 150 people on the day
20 speakers, 2 panels, 6 breakout sessions
4 sponsors and 4 community partners
52 professional headshots

The program and the speakers

A full day on the main stage and in breakout rooms, from 08:30 to the social hour at 17:00. Speakers came from Microsoft, NIST, SANS, GIAC, Bloomberg, Micron, MajorKey, KC7, Expel, EnQode, Meridian Capability Group, ALN Leadership and Chaos & Signal (CyberHERo, n.d.-c).

Agenda, 2026-10-23

Time	Session
08:30	Registration and networking breakfast
09:30	KickoffCyberHERo Event Team
09:45	Opening remarksCarmen Krueger, Corporate Vice President, US Federal, Microsoft
10:00	WiCyS Keynote: The Next Era of Cybersecurity Is Ours to ShapeKeynoteChristina Stokes, CISO, EnQode
10:45	Cyber Workforce: From Policy to PractitionerPanelModerated by Jay Bhalodia, Microsoft Federal. Rebecca Banghart, Brian Correia, Sunita Patel, Karen Wetzel
11:30	Career Panel: Journeys and ArcsPanelModerated by Megan Maley, Microsoft. Caroline Budnik, Alicia Gutschow, Sara Ibrahim, Omar Turner
12:15	Lunch
13:15	Breakout round oneChoose oneHands-On Cybersecurity Investigation (KC7) · Mobile Forensics (SANS) · Inside Out Leadership (ALN Leadership)
14:20	Breakout round twoChoose oneLeaning Into LinkedIn (Microsoft) · Mobile Forensics (SANS) · Cyber Wellness: Securing the Human Operating System (Chaos & Signal)
15:30	Lost in the AI Woods: Why the Future Still Needs YouVarsha Dwarakanathan and Salini Mishra, Bloomberg
16:00	Ask Me AnythingCyberHERo Event Team and special guests
17:00	Social hour: Mocktails & Industry Tales

Carmen KruegerCorporate Vice President, US Federal, Microsoft

Christina StokesCISO, EnQode

Jay BhalodiaSecurity Leader, Microsoft Federal; Board Member, SANS Technology Institute

Rebecca BanghartSenior Cyber Workforce Specialist and Founder, Meridian Capability Group

Brian CorreiaDirector, Global Cyber Workforce Strategy and Engagement, GIAC Certifications

Sunita PatelSenior Assistant General Counsel, Micron Technology

Karen WetzelNICE Director and NICE Framework Lead, NIST

Megan MaleySecurity Specialist, Microsoft

Caroline BudnikHead of Cyber Policy

Alicia GutschowPrincipal Advisor, MajorKey

Sara IbrahimSOC Specialist, Expel; CyberHERo alumna

Omar TurnerSecurity General Manager, Microsoft Professional Services

Blain HailemariamThreat Intelligence Content Lead, KC7

Lee CrognaleCyber Engineer and Instructor, SANS Institute

Amy NavarroCo-Founder, ALN Leadership Development and Coaching

Destiny StatonCloud Solution Architect, Microsoft Federal

Jothi DugarCyber Leader and Co-Founder, Chaos & Signal

Ty HughesCyber Leader and Co-Founder, Chaos & Signal

Varsha DwarakanathanSenior Product Security Engineer, Bloomberg

Salini MishraSenior Product Security Engineer, Bloomberg

Sara Ibrahim came back as a panelist after going through CyberHERo herself.

Sponsors and partners

Four sponsors and four community partners backed the 2026 Summit. MajorKey came back for a second year and also gave $1,000 through Donorbox (CyberHERo, n.d.-b, 2026a).

Community partners

KC7 Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu ALN Leadership

KC7 ran the hands-on investigation, WiCyS presented the keynote and ALN Leadership led Inside Out Leadership.

Registration

Registration opened on 2026-08-08. Most people signed up in the last five weeks: 114 of the 132 tickets came in from 2026-09-21 on, and the biggest week, 36 tickets, was the week of 2026-10-12 (CyberHERo, 2026a).

Tickets by week, with the running total

Scroll the chart sideways for the later weeks and the running total.

Tickets that weekRunning total

Ticket types

Ticket	Off	Tickets
Full price, $25	0%	58
Speaker, mentor and partner passes	100%	48
Community passes	100%	24
Guest passes	100%	2
Total		132

Every pass took the full $25 off. Some pass holders paid anyway: 9 of them added a donation at checkout.

Attendance

150 people were there on the day, counting speakers, volunteers and attendees together. Microsoft, as host, confirmed the count with Elisha Angeles-Ashook on 2026-11-04.

Registered and on the day

Registered

132

On the day

150

150 on the day includes speakers and volunteers.

150people on the day, all roles

132 tickets were registered ahead of time, and 74 of them were free with a pass.

Headshots

Pearly Kate Photography ran a headshot station through the day, plus one additional hour. Every photo was delivered by email in full size and web size (CyberHERo, 2026c).

People photographed

about a third of the 150 people there

Delivered

52 of 52

full size, web size and emailed

Photographer rating

6 of 7

feedback responses said Excellent

The feedback form also asked each person whether we may share their headshot on our website.

What attendees said

Seven people answered the feedback form. That is a small sample, so read it as a signal: nobody rated any part of the day below Good, and six of seven rated the event overall Excellent (CyberHERo, 2026b).

Ratings by part of the event (7 responses)

1114

511

412

511

ExcellentVery goodGoodDid not use

Carry into 2027

Attendees asked for three things: a seated lunch area so nobody eats alone, parking guidance in the confirmation email, and notice ahead of time that a photographer will be there. One also noted that breakouts sometimes overlapped mentor slots.

How we checked this

This is the public edition of the After Action Report prepared for CyberHERo and VTP leadership on 2026-11-03. It draws on the CyberHERo 2026 ledger (registrations, passes and donations), the headshot contact sheet (52 people) and the seven feedback responses received by 2026-11-03. The agenda, speakers, sponsors and past Summits were read on cyberherocommunity.com on 2026-11-03. The headcount of 150 counts speakers, volunteers and attendees; Microsoft, as host, confirmed it with Elisha Angeles-Ashook on 2026-11-04. Speakers are named as published on cyberherocommunity.com.

The full report, with spending, funding sources and the items still being closed out, stays with CyberHERo and VTP leadership. This edition leaves out vendor-level costs, donor and registrant breakdowns and attendee comments. No attendee names or email addresses appear here.

About the author

Colton Williams

Founder & Executive Director

A veteran, traveler, developer, storyteller, and inventor.

Read Colton’s full bio

Corrections

See something wrong? Write to contact@vonterraproject.org. We fix errors, put the date of the fix at the top, and say here what changed.

Sources

CyberHERo. (n.d.-a). Past summits. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://cyberherocommunity.com/past-summits/
CyberHERo. (n.d.-b). Sponsors and partners. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://cyberherocommunity.com/summit/sponsors-partners/
CyberHERo. (n.d.-c). Summit experience: Agenda and speakers. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://cyberherocommunity.com/summit/experience/
CyberHERo. (2026a). CyberHERo 2026 ledger: Registrations, passes and donations [Unpublished raw data, read 2026-11-03]. The Von Terra Project.
CyberHERo. (2026b). CyberHERo Summit 2026 feedback [Unpublished survey responses, 7 responses as of 2026-11-03]. The Von Terra Project.
CyberHERo. (2026c). Headshot contact information sheet [Unpublished list, 52 people]. The Von Terra Project.