Mary Ellen Seale, Director, CEO and Founder

 Mary Ellen is the CEO and Founder of the National Cybersecurity Society, a national nonprofit organization. She retired after 30 years of federal service, with the majority of her tenure as a member of the Senior Executive Service. In her last federal position, she was Deputy Director, Cybersecurity Coordination, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reporting to the Deputy Assistant Secretary and Deputy Undersecretary, Cyber, National Protection and Programs Directorate. As Deputy Director, she facilitated interdepartmental collaboration between the Department of Defense, DHS and the Department of Justice with respect to strategic planning for the cybersecurity of the U.S., mutual support for cybersecurity capabilities development, and synchronization of operational mission activities.

Prior to this role, she was the Deputy CIO for Resiliency and Executive Director of Modernization at the Federal Communications Commission. While at the FCC, she led a multi-year effort to improve the resiliency, responsiveness and efficiency of the FCC infrastructure. Prior to this assignment, she led efforts with the DHS Science and Technology Directorate and the Executive Office of the President, National Science and Technology Council, to build the Transition to Practice program which focused on accelerating the transition of federally funded cybersecurity research into operations. In 2008, she led the design and implementation of the National Cybersecurity Center, the lead information sharing organization responsible for coordinating and integrating information to secure U.S. cyber networks and systems. Ms. Seale received an undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia and a master of business administration (finance) from American University. She is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional, a NACD Board Leadership Fellow and a Steering Committee member of the Security Innovation Network.