Our Team
WISP Leadership Board
Rachel Tobac
Rachel is a hacker and the CEO of SocialProof Security where she helps people and companies keep their data safe by training and pentesting them on social engineering risks.
CHAIR OF BOARD
Sheila Pham, Esq., CIPP/US, CIPP/EU
Sheila is a legal privacy director at RingCentral and formerly practiced data privacy/cybersecurity at Troutman Pepper. She first joined WISP in 2016 and led the effort to expand WISP into other regions.
BOARD MEMBER
Alya Franklin, CIPP/US, CIPT, CDPSE, CISA, CRISC, PMP
FOUNDER | BOARD MEMBER | TREASURER | WEBMASTER
Alya is a partner and co-founder of Aleada Consulting, a privacy and data protection consulting firm. She helps companies comply with legal privacy obligations while helping them innovate and change their culture so they can build consumer trust and operate in a more privacy-aware environment.
K. Anna Vaccari, LLM, CIPP/US
Anna is a privacy lawyer, licensed in California and Germany, and certified with the IAPP (CIPP/US). She currently works as Privacy Counsel at Meta.
CO-FOUNDER | BOARD MEMBER
Kenesa Ahmad JD, LL.M., CIPP/USJD
Kenesa Ahmad is a co-founder and Partner at Aleada Consulting. Kenesa assists clients with developing and implementing global privacy and data protection programs, assessing multijurisdictional legal and regulatory obligations, and integrating privacy protections into emerging technology.
FOUNDER | BOARD MEMBER
Sarah Mackey
Sarah oversees WISP’s strategic planning, operations, fundraising, community building and programs to advance women and underrepresented communities to lead the future of privacy and security. Sarah earned a doctorate in public administration and holds professional credentials including Certification in Volunteer Administration (CVA) and Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE).
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Alyssa Coley, Esq., CIPP/US
Alyssa is Privacy & Product Counsel at Niantic. Incorporating privacy by design through her product counseling is incredibly rewarding. Prior to working in-house, Alyssa worked in privacy consulting and in data breach/incident response. She has been involved with WISP for nearly a decade where she developed her interest in locksport.
BOARD MEMBER | EVENT LIAISON
Irene Mo
Irene is an attorney with experience counseling clients on United States and international privacy and data protection laws and regulations. She is skilled in distilling complex legal issues into practical and actionable legal guidance. She has helped companies of all sizes, from early-stage startups to Fortune 500, build and scale their privacy and data security compliance programs.
BOARD MEMBER | COMMUNITY LEAD
WISP Local Group Lead Management Team
Marijam Darakhshan
Marijam is Director of Privacy at DataGuard and a Privacy Lawyer with experience in the field of Privacy, IT Law, and leading teams of consultants and Managers in DACH & UK. Her expertise in interest lies in Privacy, AI, IT Law, and Compliance.
DACH EVENT ADVISORY COUNCIL
Tamara Momirov, LLM, CIPP/US
Tamara is a corporate and privacy attorney (licensed in NY), with experiences working and building privacy frameworks in startups and major tech companies (Yahoo!, Meta). She currently works as a VP, Legal & Privacy in a mobile game company.
NYC CO-CHAIR
ThaÃs Teixeira Bento LLM; LLM/Eur; CIPP/E, CIPM, CIPP/US
ThaÃs is a Privacy and Data Protection Legal Counsel (LLM and LLM/Eur) with expertise in corporate law, contracts, compliance, data protection, privacy, AI and cybersecurity, focusing on in-house legal counseling. Her passion is innovation and bringing the best compliant legal solutions tailored for business.
DACH CO-CHAIR
Shahrain Coovadia
SOUTH AFRICA EVENT ADVISORY COUNCIL
Shahrain is a graduate from the University of Cape Town with a Bachelors degree (Hons) in Information Systems, currently leading cybersecurity strategy & operations initiatives at South Africa’s leading premium retailer, after having spent 5 years at Deloitte leading & executing initiatives across Cyber Incident Response, SOC monitoring, Disaster Recovery, Malware Analysis, Vulnerability Management, Threat Intelligence, and R&D.
Regina Curran, JD, CIPP/US
DC METRO EVENT ADVISORY COUNCIL
Regina is Director of Cyber Policy at American University. After a number of years in ethics and civil rights at several universities Regina shifted her career to privacy, she is passionate about championing data privacy on-campus and beyond.
Aku Odunton, JD, CIPP/E
Aku is a NYC bar-admitted attorney with over 9 years of experience in regulatory compliance, operational and policy matters in both the financial and tech industries. She has been at Meta for over 6 years and is currently a Global Product Privacy Policy Manager, based in London. Prior to Meta she worked at Goldman Sachs in both the New York and London Offices.
LONDON CO-CHAIR & CO-FOUNDER LOCAL GROUP
Juliana Conrad
DC METRO EVENT ADVISORY COUNCIL
Juliana is a dedicated cybersecurity professional. She specializes in GRC Cloud C.
Hilal Temel, LLM, CIPP/E
Hilal is currently working at Slaughter and May as a privacy lawyer. Previously she worked at Meta as data protection counsel.
LONDON CO-CHAIR | TANDEMS LEAD
Jas Johal
Jas is a Senior Director with Alvarez & Marsal Privacy & Data Compliance team, sat in A&M’s Dispute & Investigations practice in London. She brings over 12 years of dedicated privacy consulting experience, leading global teams to support financial, technology and media clients with developing and implementing international privacy programs, operationalizing legal requirements & addressing cross border data transfers.
NYC & LONDON CO-CHAIR
Sophie Sohm, LLB, MBA, CIPP/E, CIPM, FIP
As a Privacy Lawyer and a Data Lawyer, I bring a wealth of experience gained from working in prestigious law firms, the European Parliament, and Meta. My expertise lies in the areas of strategic thinking, legal advice, data policy, privacy, and AI.
DACH CO-CHAIR
Lutfiyyah Laiya Ahmed
SOUTH AFRICA CO-CHAIR
Lutfiyyah Ahmed is a privacy and cybersecurity professional, focusing on regulatory compliance. She has extensive experience delivering on and leading national and international privacy and data protection projects.
Ishva Kanani
DC METRO CO-CHAIR
Ishva is a security consultant at Amazon Web Services with experience working as Cybersecurity engineer. She is highly passionate about delivering innovative solutions and securing cloud workloads.
Mavis Mak, JD, CIPP/C
Mavis is a seasoned privacy lawyer & Certified Information Privacy Professional, who is experienced in managing all aspects of an organization's privacy program, including negotiating privacy terms for all types of commercial agreements & data sharing agreements. She has earned a reputation for being a customer-focused and pragmatic privacy leader with more than 10 years of experience working in various industries including professional services, telecommunications, health care and banking.
TORONTO EVENT ADVISORY COUNCIL
Samara Starkman, JD, LLM, CIPM, CIPP/C
Samara is the Co-Founder and Managing Principal of INQ Consulting and a Partner at INQ Law. She provides privacy advisory services, focusing on developing business-focused privacy programs.
TORONTO LEAD
WISP Program Management Team
Nicole Dove, CIA, CRMA
Nicole is Head of Security Engineering for the Games Division @ Riot Games, producer of the Urban Girl Corporate World podcast, speaker, board member, university lecturer and LinkedIn Learning Instructor.
CREATIVE DIRECTOR, PODCASTS
Hilal Temel, LLM, CIPP/E
Hilal is currently working at Slaughter and May as a privacy lawyer. Previously she worked at Meta as data protection counsel.
LONDON CO-LEAD | TANDEMS LEAD
Selena Rice, PhD
Selena is a Scientific Coordinator at the Carnegie Institution for Science with projects focused on improving diversity in STEM fields. She has volunteered at the WISP booth at DEFCON and has led several events for the community both in San Francisco and virtually.
EVENTS LEAD
WISP Volunteers
Mignon Edorh, BS. CyS, PMP, CISSP
Mignon Edorh is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), project manager (PMP) and AWS Certified Security Specialist and Solution Architect with many years of experience in cloud platform system architecture, security compliance assessment, FISMA/NIST 800 Series compliance, Risk Management, Security impact analysis, and Contingency planning.
PODCAST GUEST COORDINATOR
Kimberly Lancaster, Privacy, InfoSec & GRC Professional
Kimberly is a experienced Privacy & InfoSec, GRC Professional who also is dedicated to supporting organizations promoting the advancement and alignment of these areas. Kimberly is a Board Member for WISP, an Advisor for XRSI and an Evangelist for TROPT, while also being a volunteer for several non-profits.
VOLUNTEER
Naila Browne, PMP, CISM
Naila Browne is a Cybersecurity Engineer for Booz Allen Hamilton where she utilizes her technical management abilities aiding federal and commercial clients with cybersecurity work, IT project management, and risk assessments. She enjoys volunteering her time aiding those looking to transition into the cybersecurity field, building replica Star Wars droids as a part of a STEM droid building group, in addition to finishing her Masters degree in Information Assurance & Cybersecurity.
HACKER SUMMER CAMP EVENTS VICE CHAIR
Ana Shlimanoff
Ana is a Splunk Security Operations Engineer. She obtained her Master degree from the University of South Florida and her undergraduate from Florida International University.
MARKETING TEAM
Sherry Eckert, Business Manager, 500hr Certified Yoga Instructor, certified Somatic Movement Instructor
Long time (38 years) in the tech industry with experience in hardware, software, network management and installation. My experience was all obtained on the job, many times flying by the seat of my pants with great support from my employers.
PODCAST AUDIO ENGINEER