A former Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the first woman to lead a major US intelligence agency, Letitia A. Long, has joined Brookings Executive Education (BEE) as an Executive in Residence. BEE is a partnership between the Brookings Institution and Olin Business School.

In her new role, Long will work with faculty at Washington University in St. Louis  to deliver cutting-edge, research-based curriculum to equip public leaders with the knowledge and tools they will need to lead during times of transition and instability. Among the courses she teaches is Visioning and Leading Change, which provides leaders in the public sector with tools and processes to successfully facilitate organizational change.

Letitia A. Long

“I have long admired the work of the Brookings Institution and BEE,” Long says. “I am delighted to now have an opportunity to work with highly regarded faculty to incorporate my experiences in organizational leadership and strategic planning. I was particularly drawn to BEE because of its Crossroads of Change framework—a new way to think about whom to engage in the change process, when to engage them, and how engagement may differ across constituencies. It will be a great reflective experience for me, and even more important, an opportunity for current public leaders to learn research-based practical information from someone who has been in their shoes.”

The Brookings Institution and BEE have a long history of tapping top talent among public sector leaders. Long led NGA during critical periods of change and transition, including becoming the first United States agency to adopt open-source software development to aid natural disaster first responders and providing support to the operation that led to the death of Osama bin Laden.

Starting her career in Naval Intelligence, Long went on to serve as the Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence, and then the first Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence (Policy, Requirements and Resources), the first Chief Information Officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Deputy Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Long currently sits on the boards of Raytheon Company, Urthecast Corporation and Noblis, Inc. She is also on the board of the Virginia Tech School of Public and International Affairs.

“We are delighted that Long has joined our staff. The public leaders who attend courses at BEE have come to expect high-caliber instruction and research-based curriculum that is practical and can be applied as soon as they leave the classroom. Long will help us continue this tradition and provide unparalleled insight to those facing daunting challenges in their organizations,” said Jackson Nickerson, Associate Dean and Director of BEE and Frahm Family Professor at Olin Business School.

Long earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech, a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Catholic University of America and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Strategic Intelligence by the National Intelligence University.