CHERIE GRIFFITH-DUNN
Contributor to You’re On Mute: 13 Lessons for Women Frustrated with the Tech SectorÂ
About Cherie
Cherie Griffith-Dunn is a tech visionary, cybersecurity strategist, and founder of CGD LLC and Cyproteck Technologies Inc. With over a decade of experience, she is a Microsoft Security Partner, CISSP, PMP, Security+, and Cloud Architect. She created CyproSecure 360°, a groundbreaking network security dashboard that shifts protection from reactive to proactive — delivering real-time visibility, identity defense, intelligent threat awareness, and operational resilience.
Recognized nationally and regionally for her leadership, Cherie is a 2023 Microsoft Catalyst Awardee, a 2024 Connecticut Technology Council Women of Innovation Finalist, and a 40 Under 40 honoree. She is also a two-time international bestselling co-author, keynote speaker, and coach whose influence extends far beyond cybersecurity.
A fierce advocate for equity in tech, Cherie has often been the only Black woman in the room — and then built new rooms to bring others in. She mentors women in technology, leads sponsorship strategies, and speaks boldly in spaces where silence is expected. Her journey is unapologetically bold, legacy-driven, and rooted in the belief that brilliance should never need permission.
Â
CONNECT WITHÂ CHERIE
Cherie's Chapter:
To the Girl in the Hood – The Blueprint for Breaking Through the Tech Sector
Â
Cherie’s chapter is both a manifesto and a roadmap. She begins with her early years — a curious girl who was told “tech isn’t for girls like you” — and shows how those dismissals fueled her determination. Without a computer science degree or formal mentors, she taught herself technology, gravitated toward IT in every role, and eventually built her own companies when corporate spaces refused to make room for her.
Her chapter exposes the barriers women of color face in tech: being overqualified and unseen, having ideas repackaged and stolen, and being paraded for optics without inclusion. But Cherie doesn’t stop at naming inequity; she offers practical strategies for protecting your work, negotiating with confidence, and building scalable products.Â
At its core, this chapter is a call to arms for women in tech to stop asking for permission and start architecting their own futures. To the girl coding in the library, to the woman in the cubicle, to the entrepreneur facing rejection — Cherie’s message is clear: you are not too late, you are not too loud, and you are not asking for too much. You are the turn.
“They wanted my image, not my insight. They wanted diversity in the brochure, not in the boardroom.”
— Cherie Griffith-Dunn, You’re On Mute
About the Book:
You’re On Mute: 13 Lessons for Women Frustrated with the Tech Sector
You’re On Mute: 13 Lessons for Women Frustrated with the Tech Sector is a bold anthology by women in tech, sharing unapologetic stories of resilience, exclusion, and transformation. From global leaders to grassroots innovators, these chapters are lessons and rallying cries that challenge the systems holding us back and imagine a more inclusive future. In a moment where AI is reshaping everything, this book reminds us that real change won’t come from technology alone, but from community, care, and collective action.