Dr. Mark Stanley

Dr. Stanley joined NASA as the Enterprise Cybersecurity Architect in June 2022 and was appointed as the Agency lead for Zero Trust in February 2023. He serves as an Agency representative to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Federal Zero Trust Managers Community of Practice.

Prior to joining NASA, Dr. Stanley completed a nineteen (19) year assignment with the Department of Defense (DoD), where his final posting was with the DoD Chief Information Officer (CIO), Deputy CIO for Cybersecurity, Risk Assessment and Operational Integration Directorate (RAOI). There, he performed the role of RAOI Deputy Director and DoD Senior Cybersecurity Engineer. In this capacity, he served as the cybersecurity engineering and technical advisor to the DoD CIO and Staff, representing and providing decisions on behalf of the DoD CIO on various Senior-level governance bodies regarding cybersecurity matters. Dr. Stanley developed, managed, directed, executed, oversaw, and implemented strategic policies, plans, and approaches regarding cybersecurity risks with emerging/evolving cybersecurity architectures within the DoD, to include Zero Trust, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML), Cloud, 5G, and Internet of Things (IoT) in accordance with the DoD Cyber Digital Modernization Strategy.

Prior to joining DoD CIO, Dr. Stanley served as a Cybersecurity/Cyber Defense Architect, Information Systems Security Engineer, and Technical Director at the National Security Agency; Program Analyst in the Acquisition Center of Excellence and as the Chief Systems Engineer for the Defense Information System for Security Program at the Business Transformation Agency; Chief of the Mitigations Branch (J34) at U.S. Cyber Command/Joint Task Force – Global Network Operations; Chief of the Information Assurance/Computer Network Defense Division at the Defense Security Service; Program Director of Information Technology Security for the Special Access Programs (SAP) Central Office and as Chief of System Security Engineering for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense Joint Program Office at the Missile Defense Agency; and as an Information Technology Specialist at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

In the commercial sector, Dr. Stanley served as the Information Technology Director for a commercial construction firm in Jacksonville, Florida and as the Management Information Systems Director for a commercial waterworks distribution company in Tampa, Florida. While supporting the Defense Industrial Base, he served in various positions for a number of defense contractors specializing in IT support to Government clients in the Intelligence, Special Operations, and SAP communities. In addition, Dr. Stanley served as an Electronic Warfare/Signals Intelligence Analyst, Enciphered Communications Analyst, and Computer Programmer/Analyst for the United States Army and United States Army Reserve (Individual Mobilization Augmentee Program).

Dr. Stanley holds a Doctorate of Management (DM) from the University of Maryland University College. He completed the DoD’s War College and Joint Professional Military Education II at the National Defense University, Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy where he attained his Master of Science in National Resource Strategy (Long-Term Strategy Concentration). He is an alumnus of Saint Leo University, where he holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Business Administration with a concentration in Computer Information Systems. He holds several graduate certificates; most notably, Information Security Management from the University of Virginia, as well as DoD Chief Information Officer and DoD Chief Information Security Officer from the National Defense University-Information Resources Management College. He holds (ISC)2 certifications as a Certified Information Systems Security Professional/Information Systems Security Engineering Professional/Cloud Computing Security Professional (CISSP/ISSEP/CCSP) and PMI certification as a Project Management Professional (PMP).

Outside of the job, he enjoys working outdoors and spending quiet time with his wife of 38 years, Merrilee.