Career profile
Andrea Simpson
Chief Information Security Officer, Howard University
- Role as of 28 March 2023, the date of the latest source
- March 2023
As of March 2023, Andrea Simpson serves as Chief Information Security Officer of Howard University, working within the Office of Enterprise Technology Services on policy development and strategic planning.
Career path
Simpson's cybersecurity career began during active military duty, when she served as Security Manager for the communications squadron at Yokota Air Base in Japan, responsible for the squadron's computer, industrial, personnel and physical security programs. After leaving the military, she took a position as a technical writer for a U.S. federal contractor, work she has credited with teaching her to translate technical material into plain language. She joined federal service in 2013. She went on to hold a Chief Information Security Officer role at the Corporation for National and Community Service, the agency overseeing AmeriCorps, where she was listed as CISO in the fiscal year 2019 Federal Information Security Modernization Act evaluation. She subsequently became Chief Information Security Officer of the Federal Communications Commission, a post she held for two years, including her final six months serving concurrently as acting Chief Information Officer. At the FCC she directed a pilot program for deploying government-issued laptops as part of the agency's pandemic telework response, work that enhanced the end-user experience and reduced network vulnerability. She also identified duplicate web application firewalls, reallocating more than $200,000 to other information technology efforts, and resolved a Government Accountability Office audit covering 11 findings within a year. In November 2022 she moved from the FCC to become Howard University's Chief Information Security Officer, a transition reported as she took up the role in the same capacity. Howard University publicly announced her appointment on March 28, 2023.
Credentials and public engagement
Simpson holds a master's degree from the Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business and Management's Information and Telecommunications Systems program and brings more than 20 years of professional cybersecurity experience. She holds the CISSP credential. While at the FCC, she joined a panel discussion titled Matters of National Security: Panel Discussion with DOJ and FCC alongside Benjamin Goldsmith, examining the respective roles of the FCC and the Department of Justice in protecting communications infrastructure and enforcing cybersecurity law. Reflecting on her move to higher education, she said, "In July 2022, God gave me a vision that I needed to use my experience in cybersecurity to impact young Black women."
