Executive Mosaic’s flagship GovCon Wire will feature Lisa Costa, chief technology and innovation officer of the U.S. Space Force, as the keynote speaker at a Jan. 13 virtual forum to offer the government contracting community an insight into digital modernization efforts at the Department of Defense.
Costa was appointed to her current role in September after a three-year tenure as director of communications systems and chief information officer at U.S. Special Operations Command, where she managed a $1.3 billion information technology budget and SOCOM infrastructure that supported more than 90,000 users worldwide.
She previously served as senior director of innovation and technology at Engility and led the establishment of its data and decision sciences practice focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Her career also includes 25 years at Mitre in various positions such as director of counter weapons of mass destruction and violent extremism, executive director for the nonprofit company’s National Security Engineering Center and director of the non-traditional information and knowledge exploitation cell located at SOCOM.
Some of her efforts as a former Defense Science Board member were helping shape the U.S. model for homeland security and championing the use of publicly available information for great power competition.
Costa’s address to GovCon Wire’s “DOD: Digital Modernization” forum will be followed by a panel discussion that Johnathon Caldwell, vice president of business innovation transformation and enterprise excellence at Lockheed Martin’s space business, will moderate.
The USSF executive is also scheduled to speak at the Potomac Officers Club’s 8th Annual Defense Research and Development Summit on Jan. 19.
