Episode 16: Fearless Leadership in a Digital Age (Lauren Zabierek’s Version)

From the Air Force to Harvard and the frontlines of cyber policy, Lauren Zabierek has built a career around curiosity, courage, and connection. In this episode, she joins Careers & Coffee Talk to explore how the skills that make great intelligence officers also make great leaders in the digital age.

We talk about the power of mentorship, how to lead through uncertainty, and what it really means to “stay curious” when the stakes are high.

Tune in for the musical nods to U2 and Taylor Swift, two artists whose lyrics have soundtracked her own journey — stay for the conversation about redefining national security for the modern era.

About Lauren Zabierek
Lauren Zabierek is the Senior Vice President for the Future of Digital Security at the Institute for Security and Technology, where she works on secure by design. She is also the president and founder of LZX Consulting, LLC. Most recently, she served as a senior advisor in the Cybersecurity Division (CSD) at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) where she co-led the Secure by Design movement, stood up the Cyber Response and Recovery Fund Program, and led an effort to improve operational collaboration across the agency.

Previously, she served as the Executive Director of the Cyber Project at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, where she ran a policy-relevant research program and managed students and nonresident fellows. She also served as the Acting Executive Director of the Belfer Center in her final semester there. Her work focused on strategic, national security issues in cyber and technology–ranging from international conflict, cooperation, and norms to domestic collaboration, diversity, privacy, and supply chain issues. She was also the first woman participant in the Elbe Group discussions on cybersecurity, having been a part of the cyber-focused dialogue in 2019 in Stockholm, Sweden and again in 2021 virtually. She came to the Belfer Center as a 2019 graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School’s midcareer MPA program.

Prior to graduate school, she was an early member of the cybersecurity threat intelligence firm Recorded Future, having established and managed their public sector team. In her role as a Senior Intelligence Analyst, she fused intelligence methodologies with cybersecurity and machine learning technologies to help public and private sector customers improve their cyber posture. She also managed a team of analysts and worked alongside the Product Management and Training teams to improve her customers’ experience with the software.

Earlier, Lauren served as a civilian intelligence analyst with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) assigned to the Office of Counterterrorism and completed three war zone deployments. Throughout her six years at NGA, she became a subject matter expert on Activity Based Intelligence (ABI) and served as an adjunct professor of ABI at the NGA college. Prior, she led strategy and performance management for the United States Naval Research Laboratory as a Deloitte consultant. Finally, Lauren served as an intelligence officer in the United States Air Force at the beginning of her career, where she led three teams of airmen, civilians, and contractors in developing geospatial intelligence for combat targeting, warfighter support, and rescue and relief operations.

Lauren is the co-founder of the online social media movement, #ShareTheMicInCyber. She advises the #ShareTheMicInCyber Fellowship at New America, where is a fellow herself. A Gold Star Sister, Lauren supports families of the fallen and has volunteered several times as a Good Grief Camp counselor and mentor with the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS). She has served as a mentor with Girl Security and with #NatSecGirlSquad, and is a fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University. She serves as an Executive Advisory Council Member to Tulsa Innovation Labs and is a Leadership Board Member for the Cybersecurity Collaboration Forum. She is a keynote speaker, a drummer, and has appeared on television, radio, and several podcasts and panels.

Lauren has 22 years of experience in national security and is dedicated to building a safer, more secure future.