Katie Arrington, CISO, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment

Katie Arrington, a 2020 Wash100 awardee, serves as the chief information security officer for the Department of Defense's assistant secretary for defense acquisition. Her duty is to coordinate the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment and align acquisition cyber strategy. She leads efforts to ensure strong supply chain risk management, to establish defense industrial base security and resilience and to create a common cybersecurity standard. Arrington works with cyber professionals and legislators to optimize spending on and increase compliance with the National Defense Authorization Act, according to her LinkedIn profile. She is also responsible for aligning the objectives of the Pentagon's multiple cybersecurity efforts and standards. Her work supports both the agency and industry in relation to acquisition and sustainment matters. 

Before joining the Department of Defense in January 2019, Arrington served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from the 94th district. For two years, she served as Dispersive Technologies' vice president of sales operations for the military and the government. Dispersive is a software and cloud-based technology solution provider based in Charleston, South Carolina. Arrington briefly served as a system integrator account manager at Benefitfocus, a Charleston-based provider of benefits technology. She held various roles on the board of directors of the Charleston Defense Contractors Association, including chair of the communicator committee, chair of the philanthropy committee and co-chair of the sponsorship committee. Arrington also served as a research analyst at Booz Allen Hamilton, where she is credited with successfully carrying out business development efforts related to defense and federal contracts. In support of Booz Allen's government programs, Arrington worked in the fields of program management, operations and maintenance, logistics, cybersecurity, training, communications, information technology, engineering and construction, base support services and equipment systems design and installation. Her other past roles include VP at Catalyst Development, VP of development at Jessco Homes and sales staffer at Expeditors International. Arrington attended political science classes at Canisius College and political science and government classes at Walden University.