Shelly Blackburn comes to us today with more than 25 years of experience in the Telecommunications and Networking industry. For the past 19 years, she has held various roles across Cisco’s Sales, Channel and Development organizations.  In her current role, Shelly has responsibility for the entire global Security Systems Engineering organization which supports next-generation firewall, advanced malware protection, cloud security, and zero trust solutions. With a proven track record of increasing sales through the development and leadership of high-performing teams, she leads a World Wide organization of more than 500 security systems engineers and leaders dedicated to helping protect their customer’s network.

Shelly has a Bachelor of Science degree from Minnesota State University and a Master’s degree in Telecommunications from St. Mary’s University. She is also a graduate of Women Unlimited, the National Program for Women in Leadership, and is a key leader in the Cisco Empowered Women’s Network.

She is a mother of two beautiful children, one twelve-year-old daughter and one eleven -year-old son.  Shelly is a strong voice for women in tech and we are happy to have her on the podcast today where she shares climbing the corporate jungle gym, secret weapon interview questions and advice for you on entering and leveling up your tech career.