Page 51 - FCW, October 2017

for identifying suspicious behavior on the lab’s networks and developed metrics and generated dashboard reports to track trends in the thousands of cybersecurity issues the center deals with daily. And she accomplished all that in her first year in the job.
Furthermore, Torgerson said McClelland was instrumental
in combining the lab’s tactical efforts with those of a world- class cybersecurity research and development team.
“The collaboration between the hard-core research and real-world operations results in incredibly robust, cost-effective and efficient capability than other better staffed and funded organizations,” Torgerson said.
— Mark Rockwell
Kelley, former chief information security officer at the Environmental Protection Agency. “She helps me to understand the organization but also helps the organization understand what we’re trying to implement.”
Mohammad oversaw the modernization of legacy IT systems at the Department of Veterans Affairs, helped improve the delivery of benefits through the MyVA initiative and created a new governance process for making decisions about basic IT service requests.
In eight months of supporting the EPA, she has led the agency’s efforts in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order on cybersecurity and developed a five- year strategy, budget and maturity model for the Office of Information Security and Privacy. Kelley said her work was critical to securing an additional $7 million in funding for the office in an era in which cyberthreats are rising and EPA budgets are shrinking.
Mohammad admits it is sometimes a struggle to navigate organizations where she is younger and has less seniority than many of the key players she interacts with on a daily basis. Ultimately, she said she tries
to counter any raised eyebrows or negative perceptions through hard work.
“I think especially when people see me or my stature or know how old I am, it is kind of hard,” she said. “I constantly battle with that...but I’m persistent.”
— Derek B. Johnson
Darryl E. Peek II
Director of Operations, OCIO/OCTO
Department of Homeland Security
Darryl Peek must be as exhausted
as he is accomplished. As director
of operations at the Department
of Homeland Security’s Office of
the Chief Technology Officer, he is responsible for strategic planning, financial operations, human capital, communications and portfolio management for three DHS divisions.
Those divisions — Enterprise Architecture, Digital Innovation and Solutions, and Strategic Technology Management — help steer the sprawling department’s IT vision and technology.
As though that’s not enough, Peek also leads several major technology initiatives, including Network 2.0 for the OneNet wide-area network and agile pilot integrated program teams, and serves as a contracting officer’s representative for engineering and technology support services contracts.
In addition, he helped coordinate DHS’ Cyber and Tech Job Fair, shares his expertise at a long list
of cybersecurity and agile training programs at DHS, and is a popular keynote speaker and panelist at industry conferences.
Colleagues and supervisors applaud his “change agent” role
and say Peek is up to the challenge
of his many responsibilities. They
say his hard-charging work ethic
and motivation reflect his previous experience with demanding teams
at DHS’ National Protection and Programs Directorate and the lessons
Freshta Mohammad
Senior Security and Portfolio Analyst in support of the Environmental Protection Agency
PPC
Freshta Mohammad is a good listener. The 32-year-old senior security and portfolio analyst has based her career on her ability to solve complex policy problems by serving as a liaison between IT leaders in government and industry. Once she understands what’s important to each side, she can form a bridge between them.
In fact, she’s so good that top-level IT executives ask for her by name.
“When I go somewhere new, I try to find a way to bring her on as quickly as possible,” said Sean
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