Page 53 - FCW, July 2020

to the opportunities that are available. Making sure that programs like our Cyber Scholarship Program are out there and visible and that we continue to recruit the right type of talent.”
The program provides scholarships to college students at designated universities who are not current government employees but who can work for DOD full-time after they graduate. Current DOD civilian and military personnel are also eligible if they pursue a cyber-related degree at certain schools.
Another key part of that education is letting people know that programs like the Federal Cybersecurity Reskilling Academy, which offers cyber training for federal workers, exist and that employees can apply even if they don’t have a technical background. Twelve DOD workers finished the program in 2019, and at least half of them did not previously work in the IT field.
“Some folks have it from an aptitude aspect, and we have to tap into that,” Miller said.
Since the end of fiscal 2019, DOD has lost 100 civilian cyber personnel largely due to retirements and resignations. Congress has pushed DOD to keep better track of its cyber workforce initiatives — and their effectiveness – and increase its recruitment of people of color. The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act mandates that DOD evaluate the “existing hiring, recruitment, and retention incentives for women and minorities in the research and engineering workforce” and its effectiveness in recruiting women and underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities into STEM programs.
A commitment to mentoring
John Sherman, formerly CIO for the intelligence community, began taking over as DOD’s principal deputy CIO in early June. Miller said he and DOD
CIO Dana Deasy share her focus on professional development and building the next generation of technology workers at the department.
Mentoring can make an impact, and Miller plans to continue that work after she leaves DOD. She took advantage of the Air Force’s mentoring program when she graduated from college and currently mentors two Air Force staffers.
“There are folks who are interested in doing something different but don’t know how to make that change. And that’s where leaders have to come into play and shepherd them through the process,” she said, adding that each of the services has a mentoring program.
Those relationships are particularly important when it comes to diversity and inclusion. “There was always someone to help me along the way, feeding into me, investing into me, and helping me understand the environmental piece and how I played in that,” she said.
Miller said understanding people and forging partnerships are foundational to delivering on the Pentagon’s technology objectives. “An organization recognizing what it needs, the talent and skill set it needs, matched with an individual who knows and understands what they bring makes a huge difference,” she said.
‘You never waste a crisis’
Over her 35-year career, Miller has seen DOD evolve from using punch cards and mainframes to being a cloud-focused and now a largely remote workforce because of the department’s coronavirus response.
“You compare 1985 to now, 2020, where we’re looking at enterprise capability for just about everything, not just across the department but globally,” Miller said. “And with that,
the conversation has changed — how we share data, how we expose data across functional lines, how we focus on authoritative data sources and make that available so we’re not re-creating data sources as we create systems.”
She said the DOD CIO’s office is “focused on all of the right things” from cybersecurity, cloud and artificial intelligence to command, control and communications.
“There was a time when we’d focus on bringing IT to the table for the sake of IT,” Miller said. “Even as we talk about post-COVID and our resiliency plan, my message to folks is that we need to look at the business and the mission needs of the organization and understand how technology fits and enables that versus looking for technology to drive the way we do business.”
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has generated problems — including increased attempts to penetrate networks; problems with user equipment, network capacity and the supply chain; and fiscal worries — it has also presented an opportunity to consider commercially available technology and new ways of working.
“You never waste a crisis and an opportunity to shift,” Miller said.
She’s still thinking about what she wants to do next beyond spending time with family while she decompresses, but she is certain that workforce development will be part of her future plans.
“So much has been invested in me,” she said. “I have a responsibility to make sure I pay that forward and bring up the next generation. I love having those kinds of conversations. I have no doubt that I’ll continue to do something with the youth, and from there, I don’t know. It really is wide open.” n
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