Courtney Ingram Transforms Career Through UA Little Rock’s Cybersecurity Program

After more than a decade in bookkeeping and years of stop-and-start college courses, Courtney Ingram took a leap of faith that has led her to become one of the first graduates of UA Little Rock’s cybersecurity program and to a promotion in a fast-growing tech field she never imagined herself in.

When Ingram sat at her desk as a bookkeeper, a quote written on the whiteboard stared back at her: “Doors are opening. The wait wasn’t punishment. It was preparation.”

It was a silent challenge that lingered for years until Ingram decided to change her life. On May 17, she joined UA Little Rock’s Class of 2025 as one of the first graduates of the university’s Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity program.

“I never thought I would be in the category of being one of the first to do what I’m doing,” Ingram said. “The journey that I took to get here is something I’ll never take for granted. I put myself in a very uncomfortable position for four years, but I made it.”

Ingram, a North Little Rock native who now lives in Little Rock, began her college journey in 2004 and spent years navigating school, work, and motherhood. She took classes intermittently at UCA, UA Little Rock, and Pulaski Tech, once pursuing nursing, and earned an associate degree in biology in 2017. For a while, she stopped taking classes entirely, but she continued to dream of a more challenging and fulfilling career.

“I wasn’t content with just working in the position I was in,” she said. “I decided to take control of my life and where I wanted to be career-wise.”

That decision led her to a 2021 newspaper article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, announcing that UA Little Rock would launch a new degree in cybersecurity, and the rest is history.

“By then, I’d worked in finance for 10 years,” Ingram said. “I wanted a change, and the cybersecurity program seemed like the right path. I enrolled in 2021 and never looked back.”

She brought with her 24 hours of previous college credit and juggled 12 to 16 credit hours per semester while working full time. Her perseverance paid off. Just a few weeks before graduation, she began a new job as an information security analyst associate at Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, where she now monitors network traffic and security alerts for threats or suspicious activity, as well as procedure development.

“It’s amazing,” she said. “I’ll be front and center at graduation. It’s a major accomplishment. It was a lot of work, but it was also really interesting. I would do it all over again.”

Ingram credits her success to the strong support system within UA Little Rock’s cybersecurity program.

“My professors were awesome,” she said. “They made themselves available on weekends, answered questions, and helped us work through problems. Mr. William Cox, Dr. Philip Huff, and Mrs. Rebecca Passmore were my favorites.”

One class stands out in particular: Digital Forensics with Passmore. The final project tasked students with solving a mock murder case using forensic techniques like email and text message analysis.

“It didn’t feel like work,” she said. “It was so fun. That’s when I really realized, ‘Yeah, this is what I want to do.’”

The transformation she experienced through the program wasn’t just professional but personal.

“This program sharpened me. It made me more organized and gave me something to strive for,” she said. “I’ve changed since I started. I’ve become more confident, and it’s helped my mental health. If I can do this, I’m ready for what’s next.”

She even found time to get married in 2022 during the program, another joyful twist in what she describes as her “twisty” path to success.

“Someone at a Women in Tech meeting recently talked about how not all career paths are straight lines. I had a twisty,” she said. “A lot of professionals in cybersecurity didn’t have a straight path either, and it’s encouraging to hear those stories. My path took time, pivots, and a whole lot of faith. I’ve worked hard, asked questions even when I was scared, and pushed through the imposter syndrome that crept in more than once. If you have a dream, stick with it. A dream is just a thought until it comes true.”