Mental Health and Wellness for the Cybersecurity Community
Cybersecurity professionals spend their careers preparing organizations for the unexpected. But what happens when the person behind the keyboard is the one who gets hit by the proverbial truck?
On September 15, 2026, Silicon Valley ISSA President Mike Skurko will moderate a candid and timely panel discussion on mental health, resilience, burnout, recovery, and sustainable performance in the cybersecurity community.
Cybersecurity is a high-pressure profession. Incidents don't respect business hours. Threats continuously evolve. Expectations are high, responsibilities are significant, and for many professionals, elevated stress can become an almost constant part of the job.
This discussion brings together accomplished cybersecurity executives Kay Naidu and Farzan Karimi with mental health and resilience experts Dr. Sara Rabinovitch, PhD, and Anastasiya Rutus to examine the human side of cybersecurity—what happens when professional pressure becomes personal, and what we can do about it.
Rather than simply talking about burnout, our panel will explore real-world experiences, the science behind stress and resilience, and practical strategies cybersecurity professionals can use to recover, make better decisions under pressure, establish healthier working patterns, and continue thriving in demanding careers.
You'll walk away with practical insights and tools you can apply to yourself, your teams, and your organization.
Key Topics Covered
- Burnout in cybersecurity — recognizing when sustained occupational pressure begins affecting health, performance, and life outside work.
- Stress and the brain — understanding how sustained stress can influence decision-making, judgment, recovery, and performance.
- Resilience under pressure — practical strategies for navigating incidents, deadlines, organizational pressure, and constant change.
- Recovery after high-stress events — how professionals can recover after being "hit by the truck" rather than simply pushing through to the next crisis.
- Human performance in cybersecurity — exploring how behavioral science, stress neurobiology, biometrics, and emerging technologies can help us better understand and support resilience.
- Rest as a performance strategy — challenging the idea that exhaustion is evidence of commitment and exploring healthier approaches to sustained performance.
- Building sustainable cybersecurity careers — developing habits and approaches that allow professionals to perform without sacrificing their long-term well-being.
- Leadership and team wellness — what CISOs, security leaders, and managers can do to create environments where high-performing teams can thrive.
- Real-world experiences — candid perspectives from senior cybersecurity leaders who understand the realities of operating in demanding security environments.
Why Attend?
Cybersecurity has become exceptionally good at discussing technology risk.
We talk about vulnerabilities, threat actors, controls, incident response, business continuity, disaster recovery, and organizational resilience.
But there is another critical component of cybersecurity resilience that receives far less attention:
The people responsible for defending our organizations.
The professionals behind our critical systems are making consequential decisions, responding to incidents, managing constantly evolving risks, and often doing so under significant pressure.
This event brings together cybersecurity leadership, clinical psychology, behavioral science, resilience strategy, and real-world security experience to examine that challenge from multiple perspectives.
This isn't simply a conversation about "avoiding burnout." It's a conversation about how we build a cybersecurity profession in which people can perform, recover, make sound decisions under pressure, and sustain successful careers over the long term.
Whether you're an analyst early in your career, a security engineer, GRC professional, security leader, CISO, technology executive, or someone who has simply felt the pressures of working in this industry, this discussion is designed to give you something useful to take back to your career, your team, and your life.
Come for the conversation. Stay for the community.
Agenda
5:30 – 6:00 PM | In-Person Networking
5:55 – 6:00 PM | Virtual Session Starts
6:00 – 6:15 PM | ISSA Chapter Business
6:15 – 7:00 PM | Panel Discussion
7:00 – 8:00 PM | Food, Refreshments & Networking
Event Details
Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Time: 5:30 – 8:00 PM
Location: TBD
Join Silicon Valley ISSA for an important conversation about protecting the people behind the technology—and building a healthier, more resilient cybersecurity community.
Kay Naidu
Vice President of Risk, Ethics & Compliance and Chief Privacy Officer | Delta Dental of California
Kay Naidu is a strategic risk, privacy, compliance, and cybersecurity leader with more than 20 years of experience across healthcare and financial services.
At Delta Dental of California, she oversees Enterprise Risk Management, the Compliance & Ethics program, Privacy Office, and Regulatory Affairs. Previously, as Vice President of Governance Risk Management at McKesson Corporation, Kay led policy management, cybersecurity program governance and risk management, customer engagement, and compliance with key regulatory and contractual requirements including HIPAA, HITRUST, CMMC, and PCI-DSS.
Kay has also pioneered innovative approaches to integrating security into quality management systems and developing methodologies for identifying key and emerging risks. Her work has earned industry recognition including the CSO50 Award, Future CISO 100, and Technology Innovation awards.
Farzan Karimi
Deputy CISO | Moderna
Farzan Karimi brings approximately 20 years of offensive security experience to the conversation and currently serves as Deputy CISO at Moderna.
Previously, Farzan managed the Android Red Team at Google and the Red Team at Electronic Arts, giving him extensive firsthand experience working in some of the technology industry's most demanding security environments.
His work has been featured by Wired Magazine and Ted Danson's Advancements. He is also an avid security conference speaker, including appearances at DEF CON and Black Hat USA, where he has presented on Pixel exploitation and cellular security.
Dr. Sara Rabinovitch, PhD
Clinical Psychologist, Behavioral Scientist & Founder and Chief Science Officer | Ansera Health
Dr. Sara Rabinovitch is a clinical psychologist, behavioral scientist, and Founder & Chief Science Officer of Ansera Health, an AI-driven workforce resilience platform helping high-performance teams improve recovery, decision-making, and resilience under pressure.
Her work bridges stress neurobiology, behavioral science, biometrics, and artificial intelligence to develop practical tools that support sustainable human performance in cybersecurity and other high-demand industries.
Dr. Rabinovitch completed her postdoctoral training at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and serves as Adjunct Faculty at Keck Medicine of USC.
Outside of her professional work, she is a former collegiate athlete, proud mom of three, and passionate advocate for protecting the people behind critical systems.
Anastasiya Rutus
Leadership Resilience Strategist & Rest Coach | Founder, You Deserve Rest
Anastasiya Rutus is a Leadership Resilience Strategist and Rest Coach specializing in life, joy and rest coaching, leadership resilience, employee retention, burnout prevention, and workplace culture dynamics.
Through You Deserve Rest, Anastasiya works with technology leaders, consulting organizations, and high-achieving professionals to create sustainable work environments where people can perform at a high level without sacrificing their well-being.
She brings more than 20 years of experience across risk management, GRC, business strategy, and human-centered practices, combining that experience with her background in psychology to help leaders create environments where people can thrive—not simply survive.
Anastasiya holds degrees in Economics, Banking Regulations, and Psychology and certifications including CC (ISC2), CRISC (ISACA), and CIA (IIA).
Moderator
Mike Skurko
President | Silicon Valley ISSA
Mike Skurko is President of the Silicon Valley Chapter of ISSA and Co-Founder and Principal Consultant at PRE, where he works with cybersecurity startups as an advisor on security strategy, go-to-market execution, and revenue generation.
Mike has worked for or advised more than 50 startups and has experienced two IPOs and four acquisitions.
Outside cybersecurity, Mike holds certifications as a Pyrotechnic Operator, Avy-1, and PADI Rescue Diver. Raised in Tokyo, he speaks Japanese and is well versed in Japanese culture and cuisine.
TBD