Katie joined United States Cyber Command in June 2023 as the Chief Technology Advisor to the Commander and Director of Pentagon Operations to advise the Commander on the development of engineering strategies and policies necessary to execute the Command's authorities for service-like functions, workforce management, acquisition, and enhanced budget control. In this role, she is responsible for providing direct advice to the 4-star Commander and for overseeing, synchronizing, and representing the Command through senior member engagements within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Joint Staff, Military Departments, and federal agencies. Additionally, she is responsible for engaging with academia, media, and industry to represent USCYBERCOM cybersecurity, policy, and strategic communications initiatives.
Prior to this position, Katie served on the Senate Armed Services Committee as a Professional Staff Member from December 2018 to February 2023 with responsibility as the staff lead for the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and for the spectrum, emerging technology, and science & technology portfolios. She earlier served as a Professional Staff Member on the House Armed Services Committee Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee with responsibility for the cyber, information technology/cloud, and NSA portfolios. Prior to that, Katie spent 15 years as an electrical engineer at Sandia National Laboratories working on a variety of information assurance, cybersecurity, and non-proliferation projects. Some of her roles included managing a cybersecurity R&D team, serving as a Congressional Fellow to the HASC, and one year as a technical advisor detailed to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Research & Development Office (NA-22) at the National Nuclear Security Administration for Space-Based Nuclear Detonation Detection. Previously, she served in several technical and leadership roles on the Global Burst Detector satellite program, a nuclear detonation detection system that is integrated on the GPS satellites. She also worked in the Nuclear Weapons Use Control Systems engineering department as the lead engineer for the TEMPEST/EMI test capability, and as systems engineer and product engineer for several components of the Code Management System.
She graduated with highest honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a BS in Electrical Engineering and has an MS from Stanford University in Electrical Engineering. She has received the Military Cyber Professionals Association Gold Order of Thor medal, the Secretary of Energy Achievement Award, and two Sandia National Laboratories Employee Recognition Awards for Individual Exceptional Service. Katie is active in the Leadership Council for Women in National Security, the Military Cyber Professionals Association, and the Junior League of Washington.