Employers Who Make A Difference—
Joan Dempsey, Senior Vice President, Booz Allen Hamilton
Booz Allen Hamilton is a leading provider of management and technology consulting services to the U.S. government in the defense, intelligence, and civil markets. Headquartered in McLean, VA, Booz Allen Hamilton employs more than 25,000 professionals, and had revenue of approximately $5.6 billion in its latest fiscal year. Intelligence agencies face a complex array of interconnected threats and challenges—challenges that require not only deep analytic capabilities but secure collaborative systems and processes as well.
For more than six decades, Booz Allen’s strategy and technology experts have helped with strategic planning, intelligence management and analysis, information sharing, training, counterintelligence, and other mission support. The company serves the Director of National Intelligence, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, National Intelligence and Civil Agencies, and Military Intelligence. By delivering up-to-the-minute expertise and innovative technology solutions, Booz Allen Hamilton helps intelligence agencies gain the knowledge they need to bolster national security.
Cybersecurity is a sector that Booz Allen Hamilton plans to expand upon in the future. 

Last year, Booz Allen Hamilton formed a strategic partnership with University of Maryland University College (UMUC) to offer students three online graduate certificates in cybersecurity. The program, which blends Booz Allen Hamilton’s knowledge of emerging cybersecurity needs with UMUC’s reputation of excellence, comes as the United States strives to build a competitive, forward-thinking cyber workforce. Offered through UMUC’s Web-based learning technology, course credits are applicable to the university’s full master’s of science degree in cybersecurity or master’s of science degree in cybersecurity policy. Each certificate has a unique focus:
•Foundations of cybersecurity teaches students to assess measures to prevent anticipated cyber intrusions, employ the experiences from past cyber intrusions to mitigate future cyber threats, and formulate and implement enterprise-level policies to successfully prevent and detect cyber intrusions.
•Cybersecurity policy equips students with the skills to assess the scale and scope of the risk of potential cyber threats at the enterprise, national and global level; organizational controls that can detect cyber intrusions as quickly as possible; and responses to unanticipated and anticipated cyber intrusions to restore the operations of an organization.
•Cybersecurity technology offers students the opportunity to learn to analyze cybersecurity issues from different perspectives, lead teams of cybersecurity professionals, and make strategic decisions to prevent and protect entities from cyber threats. 

The courses are available to Booz Allen Hamilton employees who are graduate-level students interested in taking advantage of the Web-based initiative to enhance their knowledge of the expanding role of cybersecurity. Booz Allen employees can use the company’s tuition-reimbursement program to fund their enrollment.
“Our nation’s ability to successfully protect our critical infrastructure and information systems from attacks hinges on a trained, ready cyber workforce,” states J. Michael (Mike) McConnell, executive vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton. “At a time when the public- and private-sector gaps in cyber professionals are cavernous, we are pleased to partner with UMUC to deliver a program aimed at fortifying this workforce.”
UMUC president Susan C. Aldridge remarks, “UMUC’s mission is to offer top-quality educational programs that serve working adults while responding to the workforce needs of our state, nation and world. UMUC’s partnership with Booz Allen Hamilton is a testament to that mission, providing employees with graduate-level training to address the needs of the company’s clients and our nation in negotiating the rapidly changing field of cyber warfare, combating cyber crime, and much more.”
Woman Engineer magazine spoke with Joan Dempsey, senior vice president, Booz Allen Hamilton, where she leads the firm’s intelligence business in central Maryland. Previously, she led the firm’s intelligence business in the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. During a 25-year career in the federal government, Dempsey held political appointments twice: first, in the Clinton Administration upon Senate confirmation, she served as the deputy director of central intelligence for community management; and, in the Bush Administration as the executive director of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
Dempsey also spent 17 years as a senior civilian in the Department of Defense as deputy director of intelligence at the Defense Intelligence Agency, as director of the general defense intelligence program, and as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence and security. She began her federal civilian service in 1983 as a Presidential management intern in the Office of Naval Intelligence. She also served for 25 years as a naval reserve intelligence officer and was on active duty as a U.S. Navy cryptologic technician.
Dempsey was the 2004 recipient of the Security Affairs Support Association William O. Baker Award. She also was granted an honorary doctorate in 2004 from the Joint Military Intelligence College. She is a recipient of the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement, the Intelligence Community Seal Medallion, the Distinguished Civilian Service Award from the Secretary of Defense, and The American University Roger W. Jones Award for Executive Leadership. She is a member of the board of the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, the NSA Cryptologic Museum, and the CIA Officers Memorial Foundation. Dempsey is a special advisor to the U.S. Strategic Command and chairs the intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance panel of the command’s strategic advisory committee.
 “I estimate that there will thousands of jobs available in the cybersecurity field, with about a 15% growth rate” Dempsey says. “The major growth area will be by consultants who work for government and private employers. Working in cybersecurity is a culture of collaboration as we all work toward meeting a set of goals and targets.”
Dempsey explains that cybersecurity ensures that essential transactions within government and business are secure. “Cybersecurity is an exciting field that requires a mix of disciplines,” this former cryptologist in the U.S. Department of Defense declares. “It’s a rapidly evolving area in which professionals need to combine hard science, analytical, and communication skills. Specialists need to be well-versed in new technologies such as cloud computing and social networking and they must continue to pursue advanced education.”
 Booz Allen Hamilton offers an internship program with about 70 students working in the Maryland facility. “Our goal is to bring students into our workforce and then give them a head start at the company,” Dempsey remarks. “It is critically important for young women who want to advance and become upwardly mobile to find mentors as most engineering school faculties are dominated by men. I still seek mentors in my career. Joining and becoming leaders in professional organizations is also a great way to seek out mentors.”
As the nation builds its cyber and intelligence workforce, only 13% of U.S. cybersecurity professionals are women. Compounding that low number, male faculty members dominate computer science and information technology (IT) departments in colleges and universities, limiting females’ guidance and mentoring opportunities.
Dempsey concludes, “There is an explosion of women entering higher education, hopefully more in the engineering fields. Women are becoming a major force in today’s economy. Cybersecurity offers many opportunities for them to enhance their careers in a fascinating mission.”