Liz Gore
Accidental IT Guy → Cyber Bard
Six years ago I was teaching Shakespeare to teenagers in New Orleans. I was actively afraid of computers. When I was a kid someone told me I wasn’t “good at math” so tech wasn’t for me, and I believed them for twenty years like an absolute fool.
Then I became the accidental IT guy for a school district, solved one problem in Terminal, and felt something unlock in my brain that I hadn’t felt since I built a truly heinous Angelfire website in the 90s (if you ask nicely, I might share the link with you). Applied to SANS Cyber Academy, got rejected. Kept learning anyway. Applied again, got in, earned three GIAC certifications in a year, and was promoted to Director of IT almost immediately.
I’m 40, AuDHD, a mom to a neurodivergent teenager, and proof that mid-career pivots aren’t just possible, they’re powerful. Turns out fifteen years of making teenagers care about Shakespeare was elite-level training for making adults care about cybersecurity. The subject matter changed. The chaos management skills transferred perfectly.
What I Do
By day I’m the Director of IT for a school district in New Orleans, where I’m in charge of security awareness, GRC, and whatever else is currently on fire. I built a gamified security training program for staff called the Security Guild. Yes, it’s D&D-flavored. Yes, it actually works. Yes, the quest packs have fantasy lore. Yes it’s silly and no I will not apologize.
I speak at cybersecurity conferences about neurodiversity, unconventional career paths, and security education that doesn’t make people want to flee the building. My talk Intelligence Is My Dump Stat: How I Got Into Cybersecurity Anyway maps D&D ability scores to cybersecurity skills and reframes what people call “deficits” as the competitive advantages they actually are. The feedback was great, so I’m pitching more. The bit about being a Bard plays well in this crowd, shockingly.
This site is where I document my journey: the learning, the failing, the labs, the conference adventures, and the ongoing experiment of making security feel human. Expect D&D metaphors, honest talk about imposter syndrome, and more Baldur’s Gate 3 references than are strictly necessary.
Let’s Work Together
If you’re looking for a speaker for your conference, summit, or training, especially on neurodiversity in cybersecurity, career pivots, or security awareness that doesn’t put people to sleep, I’d love to hear from you.
Also available for security awareness training and workshops for education sector organizations. I come with my own chaos management experience and a very good slide deck.
Certifications
GIAC Certified Incident Handler (GCIH) · GIAC Security Essentials (GSEC) · GFACT SANS Cyber Academy Graduate, 2024–2025
Will also talk your ear off about coffee, astrology, and whether Astarion is a good romance option. (He is. This is not up for debate.)