Influential Woman · Criminology, Behavioral Threat Analysis & Cybersecurity
Dawn McCarty
Criminologist | Founder, Securing Everything | Manager: Enterprise Security Governance, Securing Everything LLC
Tampa, FL
Her Story
About Dawn
Dawn McCarty works at the intersection of criminology, cybersecurity, and behavioral threat analysis. Her research and advocacy examine how predators and coercive systems use grooming, information control, attachment manipulation, and identity disruption to influence behavior. She brings methods from cybersecurity and evidence analysis to questions often treated only as interpersonal or family conflict.
Dawn is the founder of Securing Everything and the author of Unsealing the Crime Scene, a guided investigative protocol that helps adult survivors examine what happened to them and organize their findings. Her work also includes writing, speaking, and survivor-led initiatives focused on child psychological abuse and coercive control.
She has more than 25 years of experience in information security, including her work at UnitedHealth Group. She holds four degrees spanning computer science, criminal justice, and cybersecurity, and serves on the board of Kids Need Both.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Dawn
01What do you attribute your success to?
Tenacity, curiosity, and a willingness to follow the evidence, even when it challenges what I thought I knew. Surviving difficult experiences gave me perspective, but building a career took years of learning, hard work, and people who believed in me. I’ve learned to get back up, ask better questions, and use what I discover to help others.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
“Command the room.” That advice helped me understand the difference between trying to prove I deserve a seat at the table and speaking with confidence once I’m there. I prepare, know my subject, and trust that my perspective has value. I don’t have to be the loudest person in the room to contribute something important.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Learn your field, then stay curious about the fields beside it. Some of the most useful insights in my work came from connecting criminology with cybersecurity. Find mentors who challenge your thinking, ask questions without apologizing for them, and keep a record of what you’ve accomplished. You don’t need to have your entire career mapped out before you begin. Mine certainly didn’t come with a neat little diagram.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One challenge is recognizing threats that cross the boundaries between digital and human behavior. We’ve developed ways to examine how someone gains access to a computer system. We need the same attention to how predators and coercive groups gain access to people through grooming, information control, and manipulation of trust.
The opportunity is to bring these fields into conversation. Cybersecurity, criminology, and behavioral threat assessment each offer useful ways to spot patterns, document harm, and intervene earlier. That work requires care: a useful framework should sharpen an investigation, not replace evidence or assume every case follows the same pattern.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity, curiosity, and respect for people’s agency. I care about getting the facts right, including when they complicate a story I want to tell. I believe people deserve to be heard without having their experiences reduced to a label or used as proof of a theory. In my personal life, I value loyalty, honest conversation, and showing up when it matters.
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