Debora Plunkett is a leader with more than 30 years of experience leading large, complex organizations. Culminating a career of U.S. federal service in 2016, she currently is Principal of Plunkett Associates LLC, a consulting business. She is a Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and Technology and an Adjunct Professor of Cybersecurity in the University of Maryland’s Graduate School. She serves on the corporate boards of JCPenney, CACI International, and Nationwide Insurance. She is also a founding member and Chairman of the Board of Defending Digital Campaigns, a non-profit entity focused on providing free or low-cost cybersecurity services to federal election campaigns.
As a federal senior executive, Ms. Plunkett served first as the Deputy Director and thereafter for over four years as the Director of the National Security Agency’s Information Assurance Directorate. As the leader of NSA’s cyber defense, cryptography and information systems security missions, she directed thousands of personnel across NSA’s worldwide presence and managed a multi-million-dollar budget. Her efforts enabled continuous innovation and development of strong security solutions and policies for the protection of the classified communications of the United States government, serving the needs of a wide range of consumers from the White House to the war fighter.
Ms. Plunkett also served as the first Senior Advisor to the Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) for Equality where she led efforts to develop and deliver solutions to improve equality, inclusion and diversity for the highly technical NSA workforce. Her efforts resulted in the identification and implementation of new strategies to address systemic issues.
Debora has also participated in two of the NCF’s #CyberChats podcast episodes