Every year on March 8th, the world comes together to celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) — a global event dedicated to recognizing the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. It’s also a powerful call to action for accelerating gender equality and empowering women in all spheres of life.
This year's theme, “Accelerate Action for Gender Equality,” encourages individuals and organizations to take bold and immediate steps toward closing gender gaps, advocating for inclusive policies, and ensuring equitable opportunities for all.
We sat down with Karin Balsley, AVP of Information Security & Network Communications at Healthstream to hear her perspective on IWD.
Karin's Bio:
As the AVP of Information Security & Network Communications, Karin Balsley plays a crucial role in protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of HealthStream’s information systems. She has spent over 25 years in the Information Technology space and brings a diverse skillset to her role based on experience working in education, private consulting, small business, not-for-profit, and the public sectors.
Karin initially began at HealthStream in 2013 and stayed with the company for 3 years before pursuing her dreams to take an overlanding adventure. Over the next two years she overlanded across the United States, through each country in Central America, then to Canada and back. She authored the book "I can. I will. Women Overlanding the World", taught courses at Overland Expos and founded an adventure-based travel company leading groups of women through overland explorations across Costa Rica. Upon returning to the States in 2017, Karin came back to technology with a renewed perspective and helped build and lead HealthStream's core teams over the next 7 years, taking on roles in Engineering, Architecture, DevSecOps, and Information Security.
As the Head of Information Security, her responsibilities encompass leading four teams crucial to maintaining security at HealthStream, including Threat and Vulnerability Management; Governance, Risk, and Compliance; Application Security; and Network Communications, and reports the program's results directly to the Audit Committee. Through her leadership, she entirely refreshed, grew, and further formalized the Information Security Program. Karin has created an approachable security program that fosters collaborative relationships focused on shifting-left and standardization across all areas of the business.
Happy International Women’s Day! Let’s celebrate, support, and empower women today and every day.