Carol Assi

Ms. Carol Assi is the Chief Operations Officer to the Department of Defense (DoD) Deputy Chief Information Officer for Cybersecurity (DCIO(CS)) and DoD Chief Information Security Officer. In this role, Ms. Assi is the principal advisor on all matters related to cybersecurity within the DoD, including obtaining knowledge of and providing guidance over all cybersecurity resources across DoD Components. Ms. Assi leads DCIO(CS) budget activities to include the planning, programming, budgeting, and execution (PPBE) processes. She provides technical support and professional advice for the Department’s cybersecurity and network protection, cybersecurity enterprise risk management, and for matters pertaining to the structure, organization, and operations of the DCIO(CS) office.

Prior to her current position, Ms. Assi was the DCIO(CS) Director for Cyber Activities Budget Oversight (CABO), which supported DoD Chief Information Officer (CIO) cybersecurity program execution. She directed the cyber activities resourcing process and established standards across DoD for cyber activities budget submission, which established visibility into DoD investments and enabled budget allocation prioritization. Ms. Assi managed the development and assessment of the CS Capabilities Programming Guidance requirements for DoD CIO budget certification.

Ms. Assi has over 28 years of experience in information technology, cybersecurity, cyberspace operations, and budgeting in the Department of Defense. Prior to joining the DoD CIO, she served as the Army CIO Acting Deputy Director for Cybersecurity and spearheaded the development of functional and operational requirements to support DoD and Army network defense operations. She planned and launched several cybersecurity initiatives and led innovative changes to Army and DoD policies and processes. In a previous assignment at the Defense Information Systems Agency, Ms. Assi was the Deputy Chief for the Computer Network Defense Solutions Division, where she initiated and coordinated an overarching master schedule for the entire acquisition lifecycle of a portfolio of cyber capabilities. She developed acquisition strategies for several network solutions and managed and directed the award of enterprise solutions contracts for DoD.

Ms. Assi is a graduate of the Defense Senior Leader Development Program (DSLDP) and the National War College, where she obtained an M.S. in National Security Strategy. She also holds an M.S. in Information Systems from Strayer University, and a B.S in Electrical Engineering from the Lebanese University. Ms. Assi earned a Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) Systems Planning, Research, and Development Level III certification in Systems Engineering.