Federal 100: Nicole Willis
Name: Nicole Willis
Title: Director of Enterprise Architecture Planning and Implementation, Office of the CIO
Agency/Company: Department of Homeland Security
A rising star shines bright. FCW flagged Willis as a young leader to watch back in 2011, and her 2016 efforts proved that prediction to be spot-on. She stepped into her latest job facing 10 open positions and zero federal staff, yet still delivered the enterprise architecture support needed to stand up the Joint Requirements Council as a DHS-wide clearinghouse for all new enterprise requirements, and then crafted a new Capabilities and Activities List to help standardize those requirements across the department. Perhaps most important, she built a cybersecurity maturity model that is now baked into DHS’ budgeting process.
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