Dawna Strouse
Dawna L. Strouse is a cybersecurity and AI strategist with more than 20 years of experience—and a career defined by grit, leadership, and relentless curiosity. Starting with no college degree and earning just $13,000 a year, she built herself into a six-figure leader in cybersecurity, proving that expertise, passion, and perseverance can outpace traditional credentials. Cybersecurity wasn’t something she planned; it found her—and she’s never looked back.
Today, Dawna serves as Senior Director of Business Development at StrikeReady, where she drives growth at the intersection of cybersecurity, AI, and security operations. She is also a serial entrepreneur, having previously owned a business and now leading two ventures: BLIC (Boss Lady in Cyber), a nonprofit dedicated to empowering women—especially Gen Z—in cybersecurity and AI, and DinkDate, an AI-driven pickleball social and dating app that launched less than a year ago and is already gaining national attention.
A single mom raising her son Connor, Dawna balances her 9-to-5 role, two businesses, and motherhood with a mindset rooted in passion rather than balance. She believes success comes from doing what you love, staying hungry to learn, and welcoming challenges as opportunities to add new tools to your belt. Recently featured on Fox News to discuss DinkDate, she’s now focused on expanding her speaking engagements—sharing her story to inspire others to lead boldly, bet on themselves, and build lives and careers on purpose.
• Dental Hygiene/Hygienist
• Stellar Cyber Certified Associate
• Stellar Cyber SOC Certified Analyst
• CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst
• Udemy-2022 Cyber Security Awareness Training
• CompTIA A+ Core 2
• CompTIA A+ Core 1
• Salesforce Plugin for Admins
• Leadership Series
• Admin Functionality
• SDR Introductory Training
• Asking Great Sales Questions
• Foothill College
• Honored Listee-
Marquis Who's Who
• Dink Date! LLC
• BLIC Inc
• Nonprofit for cybersecurity
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to passion and being a lifelong learner. For me, cybersecurity and leadership aren't about balance - they're passions. I've always been a leader, not a follower, and cybersecurity fell into my lap and I never looked back. I'm eager to learn more and more to well-round my professional career long-term. Whatever falls in my bucket is meant to be, and if it's something I don't know anything about, that's even better because that just means more tools in my belt. If it's a passion, then you will succeed - the chances are that you'll succeed because you like it. I feel like whatever opportunities come my way, I embrace them as chances to grow and add more skills to my toolkit.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
One advice I would say is just keep your mind open and learn a lot. Don't pressure yourself on not knowing everything, because there's still so much to learn about the actual vertical. Weigh your options, get involved with a lot of groups that pertain to the vertical, and maybe do some internships or get on some online courses. Really surround yourself with the same audience to where you could learn and also gravitate to position yourself, maybe climbing forward or advancing in the career. You've got to put yourself out there.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Being able to pay it forward is most important to me. I've been very fortunate to be in the position that I am, and I want to build a legacy and just be remembered as someone that really touched people's lives. I really strive on that. I started out with nothing - I don't have a college degree, I don't have a PhD - and I started making like $13,000 a year. Now I'm self-made, self-paid, and I can go into any job asking for over six figures, and that's only because of where I came from. I want to hopefully be able to retire and play pickleball and travel, just enjoy life to its fullest. My ultimate goal is to leave the world a better place and live life fully for the next 50-something years.