Journey of the girl from Odisha’s small village to getting top cybersecurity role in US, has been inspirational. Prachi Mahapatra has been raised in a Defence family. She embraced resilience and discipline from a young age. Prachi’s father who is a Warrant Officer in the Indian Air Force, Prakash Mohapatra instilled in her determined spirit.
She did graduation in Computer Applications from Madras Christian College located in Tamil Nadu’s Chennai in 2013. After that Prachi moved to India’s IT hub that is Bengaluru. She started her tech journey as a Tech Analyst at Amazon. Her experience in this tech industry revealed new leadership options and the increasing influence of women in this area.
As quoted by India Today, Prachi stated that, “My goal has always been to contribute to the tech and cybersecurity world at a leadership level and demonstrate that women have an important role to play, making a meaningful impact on national security, innovation, and economic growth — aligning with the broader interests of national progress and global competitiveness.”
In the year 2016 she joined Cisco as a Business Analyst. She got promoted to Project Manager in 3 years.
Prachi’s eager to learn about business and their links to technology, made her do MS in Business Analytics from University of Texas.
As quoted by India Today, Prachi mentioned that, “I wanted to understand deeper about the workings of businesses and technology and how I could contribute to solving real-world problems e.g. threats and vulnerabilities to the new world caused by AI.”
Like other people, there are many who apply for studying abroad. During her journey Prachi have financial problems. Her father was ready to sell property for supporting Prachi’s dream. But she preferred to handle her education alone.
Shifting to US was significant achievement for her. This was because she was the first one from her village to do so. Prachi’s family became her source of motivation. Prachi’s husband supported her academically. The story of Prachi is a source of inspiration for many individuals.
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