ABOUT CHERYL

Me (bottom right), my journalism teacher, and classmates outside of my high school.

I’m Cheryl Abram, a Louisiana native with a fiery passion for challenging conventional wisdom and redefining the world around me.

My journey has been unique, yet ordinary—I’m a working mother of four, an Army veteran, a social worker, certified hypnotist, learning designer, evaluation professional, non-technical cybersecurity architect, and an author.

From Houma, Louisiana, to Washington, D.C., I’ve navigated many twists and challenges, each one shaping my unique perspective on life, learning, and work.

However, it wasn’t until I was in my late 30s that I realized I had been living according to a script written by someone else. I hadn’t made my own decisions or had an original thought.

I’ve since come to understand that life is too vast and my potential too limitless to follow someone else’s script. Belief and fear don’t have to guide everything I do. I’m proud to have authored Firing God. , a book about my inner battle to question every idea, story and belief system I was clinging to—whether it was about being a religious fan, politically right, a good mother, loyal wife, obedient daughter, high-performing employee, sole provider, or natural nurturer.

God was—and still is—every story, idea, and belief system that I’m too afraid to question or have accepted as natural or inevitable. These beliefs about who and what I was supposed to be placed me in fixed roles, shaping not only how I saw and valued myself but how others saw me.

This is not a book about religion or swapping one belief for another; it’s the story of my ongoing wake-up call to recognize my ability to build a self-imposed prison. But within that prison, I’ve also created a key—a key that ONLY I have access to.

Now, I’ve dedicated my life to telling the truth, sharing my ideas and talents, and asking questions where others may assume the answers are clear. I acknowledge fear, push through it, and sometimes choose to live authentically while afraid.

My 2016 presentation at the Science and Nonduality Conference.

For me, cybersecurity is a path to freedom—the freedom to live, learn, and conduct business confidently, knowing you have control over your digital connections, assets, resources, and rights. My approach goes beyond technical details; it’s about:

• Understanding the full digital ecosystem

• Uncovering hidden vulnerabilities and capabilities

• Reimagining our relationship to digital security.

I also believe that our businesses and careers are more than just professional entities—they are living extensions of who we are. Just as we are alive, so too are the businesses and careers we nurture. They go through stages of life—growth, challenges, and transformations—just like we do.

When we treat our businesses and careers as living beings, we give them the care and attention they need to thrive. A business, like a person, needs direction, nurturing, and adaptability, and by giving it those person-like attributes, we can better understand its needs and growth potential.

A business's life cycle mirrors that of a human, evolving through phases of development, and I believe we should treat it with the same level of care and respect we give to personal relationships.

This is why I encourage others to love their careers and businesses as they would love a person—because they are, in many ways, a reflection of ourselves.

I’m also excited to share that my next book—

Open Ports & Plain Text: Re-imagining Cybersecurity Through Vulnerability —Our Most Secure Control

—will soon be published.

It builds on my desire to share my ideas and the perspective that the most ordinary and overlooked can be our most valuable and useful…if we are willing to refresh our perspectives. This book will make cybersecurity accessible to individuals and businesses alike, reminding readers that for something to be extrordinary it must first be “ordinary”.