Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Jen Easterly and all other Biden administration appointees within CISA will leave their positions by Jan. 20 – when President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office.
The other appointees who are departing the agency include Deputy Director Nitin Natarajan, Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Jeff Greene, and Executive Assistant Director for Infrastructure Security David Mussington.
“All appointees of the Biden administration will vacate their positions by the time the new administration takes office at noon on January 20th. At CISA, we are fully committed to a seamless transition,” a CISA spokesperson told MeriTalk today.
While all Biden administration appointees will be departing, that does not necessarily mean that all CISA leadership will be leaving – the agency’s leadership has a mix of administration appointees and Federal career personnel.
For instance, CISA Executive Director Bridget Bean and Chief of Staff Kathryn Coulter are career employees.
Nevertheless, it’s common for top government officials to depart their positions during a presidential transition – and some are planning to do so before the end of the year.
Farewell to Easterly
Easterly arrived at CISA in 2021, and she quickly got to work to lead the agency following the 2020 election, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a wave of cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure and businesses.
During her first month on the job, CISA stood up the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) program – which aims to reduce cyber risk through continuous operational collaboration between trusted partners in the public and private sectors.
Easterly has focused on hiring from underrepresented groups, particularly women. In 2022, she set an “ambitious goal” to fill talent gaps in the cybersecurity industry by targeting a 50 percent share of that workforce for women by 2030.
The CISA director has also been a fierce advocate of shifting the cybersecurity burden from the user to the technology manufacturer. In 2023, CISA launched its Secure by Design initiative, which she said is all about driving down cyber vulnerabilities to near zero.
In the months leading up to the 2024 election, Easterly worked to instill voters’ confidence in the U.S. election system. In her role leading America’s cyber defense agency, Easterly has assured Americans “that election infrastructure has never been more secure, and the election stakeholder community has never been more prepared.”
Prior to joining CISA, Easterly served in the U.S. Army for over twenty years. She played a key role as one of the “Four Horsemen” who helped to establish the U.S. Cyber Command.
Easterly also served as the deputy for counterterrorism at the National Security Agency, as well as the senior director for counterterrorism on President Obama’s National Security Council. She also worked in cybersecurity at Morgan Stanley for over four years.
