Leslie Beavers, most recently director of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance enterprise capabilities within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, has been appointed principal deputy chief information officer at the Department of Defense.

Her new role is slated to take effect May 8, the DOD CIO office said Monday in a LinkedIn post.

Beavers will be responsible for helping advise the defense secretary on matters related to information technology, information management, information assurance, critical satellite communications, non-intelligence space systems, telecommunications, spectrum and navigation and timing programs.

She will also work with CIOs of defense agencies and field activities to facilitate strategic resource planning across cybersecurity and IT areas.

DOD CIO John Sherman said Beavers’ experience overseeing the Defense Intelligence Digital Transformation Campaign Plan within OUSD(I&S) will enable her to further advance initiatives such as zero trust, software modernization, electromagnetic spectrum operations and the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability program.

David McKeown, senior information security officer and deputy CIO for cybersecurity at DOD, has served as acting principal deputy CIO since Kelly Fletcher stepped down in October to become the State Department’s CIO.

“Dave’s experience, leadership, and drive have been invaluable as we rolled out Zero Trust and awarded JWCC,” Sherman said.

Sherman and McKeown are both 2023 Wash100 Award recipients.

Alastair Thomson has expanded his role with the National Institutes of Health by taking on an additional post as senior adviser for data technology innovation at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, according to a LinkedIn post.

As senior adviser, Thomson is responsible for defining and developing new generation data infrastructure to support ARPA-H initiatives. He will focus on innovation, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, digital twins and cloud-based analytics.

The official will also continue working as chief information officer at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, where he has served for over 13 years.

Thomson began his NIH career in August 2002, when he joined the government organization as a software process consultant. Since then, he climbed the ranks and became CIO of NHLBI in September 2013.

Thomson’s professional efforts extend to his work as owner and principal consultant of Strategy Insight, a small business that utilizes software development processes and management approaches to assist customers in developing and executing information technology strategies.

Public sector veteran Michael McNerney has been appointed as director of the Department of Defense’s new Civilian Protection Center of Excellence.

In his new role, McNerney will drive the establishment of the center, which was ordered as part of the DOD’s strategy for civilian harm mitigation and response, the department announced on Monday.

McNerney’s experience encompasses both public and private sector work. He has spent over 15 years in government positions centering national security strategy development and planning, civil-military coordination, international security sector reform, decision-making in conflict and international relations.

Prior to his selection, McNerney was a senior international and defense researcher at RAND Corporation, where he participated in multiple research initiatives, published numerous reports and penned several commentary pieces.

Before RAND Corporation, McNerney served as principal director for plans in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, during which he aided the secretary of defense in advising on DOD and interagency plans, force management and overseas basing.

McNerney has also presented on an array of national security issues to a number of U.S. cabinet secretaries, White House staff, members of Congress, four-star military commanders, foreign cabinet ministers, NATO’s North Atlantic Council and hundreds of government officials in more than 35 nations.

Early last year, Lloyd Austin, secretary of defense and a 2023 Wash100 Award winner, ordered the under secretary of defense for policy to develop the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan, a roadmap and resource list intended to guide the DOD in bolstering its methods of civilian protection.

In August, Austin issued the CHMR-AP, which called on Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, also a 2023 Wash100 awardee, to create the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence to “expedite and institutional the advancement of knowledge, practice, and tools for preventing, mitigating and responding to civilian harm.”

The DOD said that both Austin and Wormuth have “full confidence” in McNerney’s ability to conduct the center’s establishment.

Bailey Bickley, chief strategy officer at the National Security Agency-run Cybersecurity Collaboration Center since September 2021, has transitioned to a new job supporting NSA’s efforts to help the defense industrial base guard assets from cyberthreats.

She announced her appointment to the chief DIB defense role in a LinkedIn post published Saturday.

In her prior position, Bickley led CCC’s strategy to engage and partner with companies to protect national security infrastructure against foreign threat actors.

The University of Maryland Global Campus graduate joined the agency in 2020 as cyber communications chief and previously worked as senior consultant at Deloitte.

Before joining Deloitte in 2017, she was senior communications strategist for the Department of Defense’s information assurance directorate.