Jen Easterly, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), announced the appointment of the first 23 members of the Agency’s new Cybersecurity Advisory Committee, a group that will advise and provide recommendations to the Director on policies, programs, planning and training to enhance the nation’s cyber defense.


“We’re at a pivotal moment in our history — one that demands we think anew about ensuring the security and resilience of our digital infrastructure in the face of increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. That’s why I couldn’t be more pleased that some of our nation’s best thinkers have agreed to join our Cybersecurity Advisory Committee,” said CISA Director Jen Easterly. “I look forward to partnering with these distinguished leaders from across the industry, academia, and government to tackle some of the most pressing issues of our time.”


The Committee will examine and make recommendations on various topics collectively aimed at strengthening CISA and more broadly reshaping the cyber ecosystem to favor defense. These topics include growing the cyber workforce; reducing systemic risk to national critical functions, igniting the power of the Hacker community to help defend the nation, combating misinformation and disinformation impacting the security of critical infrastructure; and transforming public-private partnership into true operational collaboration.


The members appointed today are some of the nation’s leading experts on cybersecurity, technology, risk management, privacy, and resilience. They bring a diverse set of experiences and perspectives and will impanel a set of subcommittees focused on addressing key focus areas, including the topics highlighted above. In addition to the members noted below, Director Easterly has asked National Cyber Director Chris Inglis to join her in establishing the Advisory Committee and setting its core objectives and priorities.


The members of the Committee are:

  • Mr. Steve Adler, Mayor, City of Austin, Texas
  • Ms. Marene Allison, Chief Information Security Officer, Johnson & Johnson
  • Ms. Lori Beer, Chief Information Officer, JPMorgan Chase
  • Mr. Robert Chesney, James A. Baker III Chair in the Rule of Law and World Affairs, University of Texas School of Law
  • Mr. Thomas Fanning, Chairman, President and CEO, Southern Company
  • Ms. Vijaya Gadde, Legal, Public Policy & Trust and Safety Lead, Twitter
  • Dr. Patrick Gallagher, Chancellor, University of Pittsburg
  • Mr. Ronald Green, Executive Vice President and Chief Security Officer, Mastercard
  • Ms. Niloofar Razi Howe, Board Member, Tenable
  • Mr. Kevin Mandia, Chief Executive Officer, Mandiant
  • Mr. Jeff Moss, President, DEF CON Communications
  • Ms. Nuala O’Connor, Senior Vice President & Chief Counsel, Digital Citizenship, Walmart
  • Ms. Nicole Perlroth, Cybersecurity Journalist
  • Mr. Matthew Prince, Chief Executive Officer, Cloudflare
  • Mr. Ted Schlein, General Partner, Kleiner Perkins; and Caufield & Byers
  • Mr. Stephen Schmidt, Chief Information Security Officer, Amazon Web Services
  • Ms. Suzanne Spaulding, Senior Advisor for Homeland Security, CSIS
  • Mr. Alex Stamos, Partner, Krebs Stamos Group
  • Dr. Kate Starbird, Associate Professor, Human Centered Design & Engineering, University of Washington
  • Mr. George Stathakopoulos, Vice President of Corporate Information Security, Apple
  • Brigadier General Alicia Tate-Nadeau (ARNG-Ret.), Director, Illinois Emergency Management Agency
  • Ms. Nicole Wong, Principal, NWong Strategies
  • Mr. Chris Young, Executive Vice President of Business Development, Strategy, and Ventures, Microsoft


The CISA Cybersecurity Advisory Committee will hold its first meeting on December 10, 2021, where Members will be sworn in, discuss their scope of work, and develop a plan for tackling key areas of focus. Due to COVID restrictions, members of the media and public may attend virtually. 

Members of the media and public that wish to attend virtually need to RSVP to CISA_CybersecurityAdvisoryCommittee@cisa.dhs.gov by December 8, 2021.

For more information about the CISA Cybersecurity Advisory Committee and the biographies of Committee members, visit cisa.gov/cisa-cybersecurity-advisory-committee.