Growing up, she never dreamed she could have a career in computers, but her career doing what she loves has spanned more than three decades. Kimberlee Christian is a member of the Cherokee Nation, currently living in Arkansas but originally from Oklahoma. As a mother and grandmother, much of her free time is spent with her family and supporting her daughter’s rodeo career.

Professionally, Christian’s a retired army cybersecurity signal officer who spent 32 years in the military. She led a cyber response team, was the commander of the cyber and information advantage battalion and was in charge of the governance division for the Army National Guard. She was also the deputy director of the largest military cybersecurity exercise in the US.

In her daily work, Christian managed a local area network the size of the state of Missouri and later the network for the entire Army National Guard. She also made sure higher ranking officials had communications on the go. She would educate staff on network protocols, procedures and limitations. The networks she managed had thousands of end users across multiple countries and she would spend time troubleshooting their issues by phone, radio or through their computers.

These days Christian works for Worldwide Technology, a worldwide company, as a strategic advisor for their tribal account teams. Looking to the future once her youngest daughter is more independent, she hopes to start her own company with her husband who is an information technology specialist in cyber security.

When Christian first got her start, her dad wanted her to go into computers. She ended up getting a political science degree and later a Masters of Business Administration. When she was commissioned as an officer, she was asked to write out her top three choices of what she wanted to do and her first choice was working for the Signal Corps. At the time, women were not allowed in combat units or in some military intelligence sections. Over the course of her career, she worked at the tactical, operational and strategic levels, getting her start at the tactical level doing line of sight radio communications. When she saw cybersecurity starting to take off, she jumped at the chance to work in the area.

When it came to obstacles, Christian found being a woman in a male dominant career to be a challenge. While she excelled in physical fitness tests, her results were sometimes downplayed because she was at the top of the female fitness scale and few people saw that she was in the upper percentile for people tested overall, men included. While she couldn’t be in combat, she made sure she understood military tactics so she would be taken seriously. She prided herself on making sure everybody under and around her made it home.

Without a mentor, given men didn’t want to mentor her not understanding what she went through as a woman and women were just trying to get through their careers themselves, Christian looked inward and relied on the strength she built as an athlete growing up. She trained, researched and prepared herself so she could walk into meetings with confidence. She relied on positive self-talk, reminding herself she belongs and to not be discouraged by other people’s opinions. She found the bravery to speak up when others were missing the point instead of talking herself out of the answers she knew deep down. “You’ve got to speak up like you are confident…and the more you do it, the more confident you become in doing it the next time.”

Her advice to people, especially young women, considering the military would be “Don’t limit yourself.” She encourages prospective applicants to follow their passions and pursue what they want to try. While those goals may not turn out to be what they hoped, there's always other ways to put their skill sets to use. Looking back, Christian remembers how in college she thought she couldn’t work in computers and now she’s had a 34 year career working in computers.

“Don't be afraid to try something new, and don't think, ‘well, I'm just this Indigenous kid living on a reservation’…Don't sell yourself short, go ahead, step out there, take a chance on yourself, and you will be amazed at the things that you will experience, the things you'll learn that you can do that maybe you didn't know you could do,” she urges. At first, she didn’t think she would like working with computers and it turned out she loves it.

When it comes to inspiration, she recalled looking up to the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation, Wilma Mankiller. Other than that, there weren’t many Indigenous female role models to look up to that she knew of and she wanted to change that. She didn’t envision her career as it is but she knew she had talents, capabilities and wanted to make the world a better place. She also wanted people to know they can make a difference. She’s taught her sons to uplift the voices of women and not to pick on them and her daughter to stand up for what she believes in and to not be afraid to speak up.

In closing, she shares words of inspiration, saying, “Don't be scared to try new things, and read, read, read. Not everything you find on the internet is true, but get out there, do your research, go to the library, find books… Understanding where you came from is important, but also understanding where the world is is very important nowadays… No matter where you're from, don't be afraid to learn and reach for whatever goal you have…Just don't be afraid to step out there and do something outside your comfort zone.”

Her dad wanted her to work in computers and it turns out he was right, Kimberlee Christian found her purpose and a career spanning three decades in computing. As a woman in the military, she wasn’t allowed on the battlefield but the field of cybersecurity brought great opportunity. Wanting to make the world a better place and wanting to become the role model she wished she had, she’s found ways to do just that in pursuing her passions.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.