Kiersten Todt is the Chief of Staff of the U.S.

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that is responsible for strengthening cybersecurity and infrastructure protection across all levels of government, ...

(CISA). She previously served as the managing director of the Cyber Readiness Institute as well as a resident scholar at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

in Washington, DC with the Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security and was appointed for this position on June 1, 2017. Before taking this position, she worked under Barack Obama in the national cybersecurity commission. She was the president and partner with Liberty Group Ventures, LLC. She has been a partner with Good Harbor Consulting. She was cognizant of the organization's North America crisis management practice.

Background and career

Todt graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

with a public policy degree from the

Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of comprehensive course ...

in 1994. Her Master's degree is from the

John F. Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. In 1999, she was named a Presidential Management Fellow.

Government service

Before working for Good Harbor, she worked for

Business Executives for National Security Business Executives for National Security (BENS) is an American nonpartisan, nonprofit organization. Prominent members include Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, former Cisco chairman John P. Morgridge, and former Infor CEO Charles E. Phillips. The orga ...

(BENS). In this position she worked to bring together state and local emergency organizations and businesses. Ms. Todt served as a Professional Staff Member on the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs; she worked for the Committee Chairman, Senator

Joseph Lieberman Joseph Isadore Lieberman (; born February 24, 1942) is an American politician, lobbyist, and attorney who served as a United States senator from Connecticut from 1989 to 2013. A former member of the Democratic Party, he was its nominee for Vi ...

, and was responsible for drafting the cybersecurity, infrastructure protection, emergency preparedness, bioterror, and science and technology directorates of the legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security. She also developed and executed federal and regional port and cyber security projects. Prior to BENS, she was a consultant for

Sandia National Laboratories Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), also known as Sandia, is one of three research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Headquartered in Kirtland Air Force Ba ...

and worked with the California Governor’s Office and Bay Area Economic Forum to develop the homeland security preparedness plan for the Bay Area. Todt has been an adjunct lecturer at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. Before working in the Senate, Todt worked on Vice President Gore’s domestic policy office and was responsible for coordinating federal resources with locally-defined needs, with priority on energy and housing. She was also the senior adviser on demand-reduction issues to Director Barry. R. McCaffrey at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). She received the outstanding service award while there. On March 23, 2016, Todt joined the

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...

(NIST). Todt's role in the NIST was to create anticipated actions that the federal government would develop in the short and long term along with other government departments. Secretary Pritzker endorsed her appointment of Todt by describing her as having proven expertise in risk management. She was the Executive Director of the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. She currently works on the team with Chairman

Tom Donilon Thomas Edward Donilon (born May 14, 1955) is an American lawyer, business executive, and former government official who served as National Security Advisor (United States), the 22nd National Security Advisor in the Obama administration from 2010 ...

. “A recognized and highly accomplished leader in the field, Kiersten's experience in both the public and private sectors make her uniquely qualified to assist the Commission as it develops and recommends an agenda to enhance the nation's cybersecurity,” Commission Chair Tom Donilon said.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Todt, Kiersten University of Pittsburgh faculty People from Pittsburgh Harvard Kennedy School alumni Princeton School of Public and International Affairs alumni