Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Stephanie O’Sullivan is the most senior woman — and the second highest ranking intelligence official — in the U.S. Government. O’Sullivan, who was sworn into this position February 28, 2011, focuses on operations for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence while also managing Intelligence Community coordination and information sharing.
O’Sullivan came to ODNI after several years at the CIA, where she served as assistant deputy director for the agency and also held various management positions in the CIA’s Directorate of Science & Technology.
For four years, she led CIA’s DS&T efforts where her responsibilities included systems acquisition and research and development in fields ranging from power sources to biotechnology.
In a 2009 interview for CIA.gov, O’Sullivan talked about picking a career path uncommon for women of her generation.
“I would pick jobs because I wanted to learn something new or I wanted to work for someone that I could learn something from,” she said. “I was mostly just trying to learn new and different things, and get up every day feeling like it made a difference that I came into work.” That attitude sometimes led to uncomfortable circumstances, such as being the only female in an audience of 500 at an engineering conference in the early 1980s.
“I wanted to become an engineer because I liked to build things,” she said. “I loved the idea of creating something that didn’t exist before.”
- Stephanie O’Sullivan
Through it all, O’Sullivan developed a passion for mentoring young people and young professionals, citing the benefits she herself received as a mentee, “They want to teach you. They want to tell you about what they did and how they did it…” she said. “And so, the thing is that you have to have the courage to ask.” O’Sullivan told CIA.gov, “I’ve learned more from the employees I’m mentoring than I think they did from talking to me.”
That realization also shaped O’Sullivan’s appreciation for unique perspectives particularly when it comes to addressing tough intelligence problems. In a 2016 interview with Trajectory Magazine, O’Sullivan reiterated what has become somewhat of a mantra for her, “being different is a strength. In the IC in particular, we can’t afford to repeat patterns or fall into just doing the status quo and hitting repeat, so the people who bring different viewpoints or experiences are particularly valuable.”
O’Sullivan’s commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion was recently honored by Women in Technology with the 2016 Women in Technology Leadership Award in the Government Service category. WIT’s Annual Leadership Awards celebrate innovative women in the science and technology industry who are leading with impact. Earlier this year, O’Sullivan was similarly recognized by FedScoop as one of DC’s Top 50 Women in Tech for 2016.
Unsurprisingly, O’Sullivan’s duties make for a packed calendar, but she still participates in roughly 70 speaking engagements a year — spending time with members of the Intelligence Community and industry, speaking at colleges and universities, traveling to major conferences like Austin, Texas’ South by Southwest Festival and delivering the keynote for the 2015 Intelligence Community LGBT Summit.
On the particular day we shadowed O’Sullivan, a “field trip” to visit the Columbia Heights Educational Campus in Washington, D.C. was on the top of her agenda. The purpose of her visit was to share opportunities and promote awareness for high school students to increase the representation of women and other minorities in all branches of the Intelligence Community (ODNI recently released the first unclassified annual Intelligence Community Diversity report — read it here).
Before departing ODNI’s northern Virginia headquarters for her trip to meet with the students and faculty of CHEC, the morning started for O’Sullivan with the president’s daily briefing at 7:45 a.m. From there, she chaired the ODNI senior staff meeting and, accompanied by the IC’s Assistant Director of National Intelligence for Human Capital Deborah Kircher, met her security detail for the trip downtown.
Columbia Heights Educational Campus is a multicultural, multilingual public middle school, and high school located in downtown Washington, D.C., serving students from sixth to 12th grade.
Upon arriving, O’Sullivan was greeted by school principal Maria Tukeva, who for three decades has worked to empower and educate under-served immigrant and minority communities, and CHEC alumni Berta Gonzalez, a special agent with the Office of Personnel Security.
Before addressing a full auditorium of CHEC students, O’Sullivan met with faculty members who shared their experiences and spoke about some of the daily challenges at CHEC.
A student works on a pencil sketch in the back of the auditorium as he waits for the assembly to begin (those glasses look a little bit familiar).
Describing what it’s like to make a career in the Intelligence Community, O’Sullivan said, “We can’t promise you a big paycheck and you may not be able to tell your friends and family exactly how your day went while at work, but what I can guarantee you is the chance to work on an unparalleled mission with the most dedicated folks you will ever meet.”
Giselle Andino, an 11th-grader at CHEC, presents artwork that she made specifically for O’Sullivan.
Breanna Beckles, a 12th-grader, participates in a question and answer session with O’Sullivan, asking about counterintelligence and how it is collected (for more on ODNI’s counterintelligence role in government, visit ncsc.gov, the website for our National Counterintelligence and Security Center).
“When it comes to figuring out what career will fulfill you, or what your passion is, unless you’re open to all possibilities you may miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime,” O’Sullivan said.
O’Sullivan’s own journey started with a vaguely worded classified ad in the local newspaper for an ocean engineer. As a newly minted engineer, and having spent her youth sailing, she thought “I’m probably qualified.” It wasn’t until after she began working for the Office of Naval Intelligence that O’Sullivan realized all the opportunities for engineers in the Intelligence Community.
Sierra Queen, an 11th-grader, asks about some of the different job opportunities available in the Intelligence Community (the best place to read about careers in the IC is our newly launched site: intelligencecareers.gov).
In response, O’Sullivan said, “Sure, we have the operations officers who blend into their environment. You cannot look like me and operate on many of the streets of this world.
“We have expert linguists and talented analysts whose understanding of unique global communities runs deeper than what they’ve read or studied in school.
“But we also have master craftspeople, logisticians, accountants, historians, mathematicians, cryptologists and scientists. And the one thing all these talented but very different people have in common: our mission.”
At the conclusion of her speaking engagement, O’Sullivan answers 11th grader Oscar Orellana’s questions about foreign language opportunities in the Intelligence Community in the CHEC hallway (a good place to start is by reading the IC’s pamphlet on career opportunities for Using Your Foreign Language Proficiency in government).
Eleventh-graders Jenifer Carranza and Nataly Estrella ask to have their photo taken with O’Sullivan.
O’Sullivan chats with students and facility, happily answering questions and meeting students long after her speaking engagement concluded.
An auspicious group: Assistant Director of National Intelligence for Human Capital Deborah Kircher, Special Agent with the Office of Personnel Security (and CHEC alumni) Berta Gonzalez, PDDNI Stephanie O’Sullivan, CHEC Principal Maria Tukeva, CHEC After School Program Director Kapindi Kroma and Shehzi Khan pose for a photo in front of CHEC.
“The truth is, if you’re doing work that challenges and inspires you — and if you feel motivated by the people around you — you will be amazed at what you can accomplish,”
- Stephanie O’Sullivan
As O’Sullivan prepares to depart, Tukeva thanks her once more for making time in her busy schedule to visit CHEC.
That afternoon, following a series of meetings, O’Sullivan provided the capstone address at the 2015 TECHINT Conference and then returned back to ODNI headquarters for more meetings before finishing up around 7 p.m., a fairly “routine” day for the PDDNI.
