Thank you for supporting the cybersecurity community with a Visionary Leadership Award nomination!
The nomination form is simple and quick, and we have just a few rules:
- Prior VLA honorees are not eligible for consideration; for a complete list of past recipients, scroll past the form below.
- Align your nominee to the most appropriate award category (i.e., You may nominate someone for one award only.)
- Self-nominations are allowed.
- You may submit multiple nominations.
- You may submit a nomination for just one VLA or all eleven award categories, with one nominee per submission form.
Nominations will accepted through May 18.
Visionary Leadership Award honorees will be honored at the 2027 Cyber Security Summit in October.
The Visionary Leadership Award Categories are:
Visionary Academic Leader
The Visionary Academic Leader award recognizes outstanding educational contributions and program leadership related to an academic cyber security program. The award is presented to an academic leader (e.g., teacher, STEM Coach, Cyber Program Advisor, etc.) or security practitioner.
Visionary Application Security Leader
The Visionary Application Security Leader award recognizes a security practitioner or team that demonstrates innovation and outstanding oversight of an application security program. The award is presented to an individual security practitioner or a team devoted to application security.
Visionary Community Leader
The Visionary Community Leader award recognizes a person who has applied influence and leveraged credibility to bring others into the cyber security community and inspired and connected partners to the broader mission. All nominees will be considered.
Visionary Global Security Leader
The Visionary Global Security Leader award recognizes a person who has advanced the cause of cybersecurity on a global scale. The award will be presented to an academic leader or security practitioner.
Visionary Governance Champion
The Visionary Governance Champion award recognizes a C-suite leader, board member, or elected or appointed official who recognizes the strategic cyber security value proposition and serves as a cyber security champion.
Visionary Governance, Risk and Compliance Leader
The Visionary Governance, Risk and Compliance Leader award recognizes a security practitioner or team that demonstrates innovation and outstanding GRC program oversight, through risk assessment, policy and procedure, vendor assurance, or compliance efforts. This award is presented to a security practitioner or team devoted to GRC-related program elements.
Visionary IT Audit Leader
The Visionary IT Audit Leader award recognizes a technology audit practitioner or team that provides outstanding cyber security assessment services. This award is presented to a security practitioner or team that works in an audit capacity.
Visionary Security Awareness Program Leader
The Visionary Security Awareness Program Leader award recognizes a security practitioner or team that demonstrates outstanding and innovative work related to a security awareness program. This award is presented to a security practitioner or team devoted to security awareness.
Visionary Security Operations Leader
The Visionary Security Operations Leader award recognizes a security practitioner or team that demonstrates innovation and outstanding oversight for security operations program elements, such as monitoring, vulnerability management, incident response, or access control. This award is presented to a security practitioner or team devoted to security operations.
Visionary Security Program and Oversight Leader
The Visionary Security Program and Oversight Leader award recognizes a CISO or other leader who uses innovative tools and techniques to continuously improve a complex cyber security program. This award is presented to a security practitioner or governance champion.
Visionary Student
The Visionary Student award recognizes a student who has demonstrated outstanding leadership and/or contributions that exceed academic program expectations. Nominations for this award must be from a professor, academic advisory, or internship leader, and the award is presented to a current student or current year graduate.
Periodically, and at the discretion of the VLA Executive Committee, a Founder’s Award may be presented as part of the Visionary Leadership Awards to acknowledge the significant long-term contributions to the Cyber Security Summit community.