Expanding Cybersecurity Awareness Month to Global Audiences

I led the international expansion of Cybersecurity Awareness Month from a U.S.-focused campaign aimed primarily at technical cybersecurity professionals into a global awareness and public-education program. I broadened its audience, adapted content and outreach, managed the program transition, and jointly led partner engagement with the federal program manager. Audience reach increased 698% year over year as the campaign expanded across North America, Europe, Africa, Central America, South America, and the Levant.

Challenge

Cybersecurity Awareness Month had an established domestic presence, but its audience remained concentrated among technical cybersecurity professionals. That focus left out many people and organizations that influence cybersecurity behavior, including organizational leaders, communications teams, nonprofits, academic institutions, and critical-infrastructure owners and operators.

Expanding the campaign required more than distributing existing materials internationally. The team needed a broader audience strategy, content for different professional groups, new partner relationships, and a delivery structure capable of supporting global reach while meeting fixed public deadlines. Internal reporting and approval processes also needed to move faster as the program grew.

Approach

I developed the expansion plan and translated it into schedules, content requirements, communications, staffing, operations, and logistics. I owned new content creation and oversight, content and data migration, internal and external communications, cross-functional training, and the delivery schedule.

I adapted the campaign for nontechnical audiences and jointly managed partner relationships, risk decisions, and approvals with the federal program manager. Outreach spanned several regions and included organizations such as ENISA, the African Union, the UK National Cyber Security Centre, the Australian Cyber Security Centre, and Global Cyber Alliance.

To support the larger program, I standardized recurring project templates, dashboards, and status reporting and introduced automation where manual work slowed delivery. I used three-to-six-month workload forecasts to anticipate staffing needs and made reallocation decisions jointly with my supervisor.

My Role

I served as a Senior Communications Project Manager supporting CISA and formally supervised 15 employees. I conducted performance reviews, assigned work, managed workload and resources, coached and trained staff, and addressed performance and delivery challenges.

I held direct responsibility for the Cybersecurity Awareness Month schedule, content development and oversight, content and data migration, communications, operations, logistics, staffing, and cross-functional training. I owned burn-rate tracking, financial forecasts, staffing costs, and variance review for my team and contributed to contract-wide financial and resource reviews with my supervisor.

My supervisor retained final authority over contractor staffing reallocations, while the federal program manager retained final client approval.

Results

The work expanded the program while reducing cycle time and manual effort:

• Increased Cybersecurity Awareness Month audience reach 698% year over year by expanding the campaign from a U.S.-focused technical audience to a global, multi-sector audience.

• Reduced cycle time for comparable recurring tasks, collateral, projects, and approvals by 35% through standardized templates, dashboards, and automated reporting.

• Returned an estimated 15 staff hours per week by reducing manual work across comparable recurring processes.

• Completed the program’s transition to a broader global awareness and outreach model on schedule by coordinating content, communications, migration, staffing, operations, logistics, and partner delivery.