STEM WOMAN CRUSH: TALYA PARKER
My mission is to provide diversity in the area of STEM by encouraging women, especially black women, to take a degree in STEM. — Talya Parker
The SWIS Africa team has been following Talya’s Instagram handle and what she’s doing through her organization; Black Girls in Cybersecurity for a while and we were inspired by the great things she’s doing in the technology space. We arranged an interview with her to learn more about her passion and encourage other women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
SWIS Africa: Kindly give us a brief autobiography of yourself?
Talya: Talya Parker is a Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Risk Management professional with over six years of advisory, consulting, and industry experience combined. Her industry experience consists of consumer products, healthcare, financial, public sector (state), and the federal government. As a Cybersecurity and Privacy Architect with Georgia Institute of Technology (also known as Georgia Tech); Talya manages and leads the implementation and configuration for the Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) via ServiceNow in reference and adherence to Federal and State regulations, as well as, industry standards including MARSE, NIST, and ISO frameworks. She also conducts security risk assessments and audits against her client’s Integration Platform in order to provide programmatic and strategic support to migrate from a monolithic Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) to a module-based system leveraging Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Prior to GA Tech, Talya worked for Nike. She managed the privacy and compliance reviews of all Converse’s digital products for consumer and internal users to ensure the implementation of proper privacy controls. Prior to Nike, Talya spent four years with Deloitte & Touche’; her projects spanned across the development of a system security plan via NIST, the management of operational and information technology processes, and strategic roadmap development for top CISO clients. Additionally, Talya led and managed Deloitte’s internal data protection team and the privacy assessments of tax tools, and technology deployed within Deloitte US and its member firms.
SWIS Africa: What drives your passion to share your scientific journey online?
Talya: My passion is derived from a lack of diversity when I started up as a cybersecurity analyst; I had no woman, especially a black lady in the field, to mentor me. I want to be the image pictured in young women’s hearts when they decide to pursue a career in cybersecurity.
My mission is to create awareness, and that’s why I run an NGO (Black girls in cyber) because people don’t know what the career looks like and provide a mentorship level for young black girls.
SWIS Africa: How easy has it been managing your work and social life in a balance?
Talya: Pre-COVID I was traveling a tone for work, but I got pregnant along the line, so it limited my travels. I try my best to spend the weekend with my husband and go out with my friend, and I sometimes travel to visit my family. With COVID, I have been able to spend quality time with my family.
My job gives room for flexibility, so it easy to manage work and social life. I will like to encourage women to get help, for example employing a nanny if possible because sometimes work and home can get very challenging and stressful.
SWIS Africa: Will you ever for any reason agree that science is not a “woman thing”? If yes, can you give personified reasons to that effect?
Talya: Science is every bodies thing. The people who work in the sciences are shaping the world. An example, if we only have men in this field, the needs of women are not prioritized because there is no representation in these spaces to understand what a woman wants.
If we think further about birth control, it is beautiful if a woman is involved in deciding what goes into the woman’s body.
SWIS Africa: As there been any humiliating or tears-driven moment in your course all because you are a woman-in-the-science-world?
Talya: In the early days of my career, I have been in a situation where a client wanted me off a project because of how I looked. This moment didn’t weigh me down but motivated me and pushed me to be better at my job.
SWIS Africa: Can you tell us briefly about your job?
Talya: Cybersecurity or Information Technology Security is the technique of protecting computers, networks, programs, and data from unauthorized access or attacks aimed at exploitation. My job as a cybersecurity analyst is to make sure that my team (the engineers, data analysts, developers, architects are providing is a secure platform by conducting a risk assessment.
We are using amazon web services and GRC tools to conduct risk assessments. I lead the team, and I do a lot of strategizing of where we are with our current system and where we are trying to get to, ensuring that everything that happens in between is safe, and we measure and track compliance to the business and system.
SWIS Africa: What is your boost for going on with this passion-driven scientific adventure?
Talya: 1. I was not so crazy about science initially, but I did well in high school and decided to pursue a career in pharmacy. Still, along the line, in university, I switched my courses because it got intimidating. But as I grew older, I realized the jobs I loved were in the science line.
I had to build a career in sciences, it got challenging and intimidating along the way, but I didn’t give up, because at the beginning it might be, but it gets you the green jobs, flexibility and the best life you have in mind.
SWIS Africa: It has been a wonderful experience having you; before you go, what will be your words for that girl out there still left in the darkness of her thoughts and decisions of whether to pursue her scientific career or just let go of it?
Talya: To a young girl who wants to build a career in any tech-related role or STEM, I will advise her to be consistent and always try to build up her skill set by taking online courses on Coursera, EDX, youtube and linked in.
Set goals for what you want to do for a year, build your network. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there have confidence and don’t be discouraged if someone says no because someone else out there will say yes.
SWIS Africa: Thank you very much, Talya, for your time. We wish you success in your career.
If you want to learn more about Talya and her work, kindly follow her on social media:
Instagram: @taypark_
Linkedin: Talya C. P.
SWIS Africa is an initiative focused on celebrating and shaping women in STEM in Africa. You can learn more about us by clicking this link.
