Samuel Sanders Visner is a Tech Fellow at the Aerospace Corporation, former Tech Fellow at the MITRE Corporation, and former Director of the National Cybersecurity Federally Funded Research and Development Center (MITRE), sponsored by the National Institute of Science and Technology (appointed October, 2017). Sam is Director of Security, Netcracker Technology. He serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center (https://s-isac.org/). Sam also serves as member of the Cyber Council of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance and is a former member of the Cyber Committee of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association. Sam is an adjunct professor of Science and Technology in International Affairs at Georgetown University, where he teaches a course on cybersecurity policy, operations, and technology. Sam is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Atlantic Council, and is a former member of the Intelligence Community Studies Board, sponsored by the National Academy of Science and serving the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Sam is also a former member of the Army Science Board. Sam served previously as Senior Vice President at ICF (General Manager, Cybersecurity and Resilience), Vice President at CSC (General Manager, CSC Global Cybersecurity), Senior Vice President at SAIC, and as Chief of Signals Intelligence Programs at the National Security Agency, from which he received the Agency’s highest award for civilian service. Sam also served as a member of the Board of Directors, CVG/Avtec (2008-2010). Sam holds a bachelor’s degree in International Politics from Georgetown University and a master’s degree in Telecommunications from Washington University. Sam served twice on the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Task Force of the Defense Science Board, and has published articles on national and cybersecurity in World Politics Review, the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, and the Defense Intelligence Journal. Sam is married to Antoinette (Toni) Burnham, Washington DC’s leading urban beekeeper.
He has taught STIA 391: Cybersecurity: Policy, Technology, and Operations and continues to serve as an advisor to the course and to the Program on Science and Technology in International Affairs. Sam and his wife have created a charitable trust for continue curriculum development at Georgetown in the field of information technology and international security.
Expertise
Cybersecurity, Intelligence, National Security, Organizational Design and Leadership, Policy
