Karen Evans has joined the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) as a Senior Advisor, bringing extensive expertise in cybersecurity, national security, technology innovation, and supply chain risk management. Evans, who announced the move on LinkedIn, has held multiple presidentially appointed roles across two administrations and has over 30 years of executive-level experience managing federal IT and cybersecurity initiatives.
Evans previously served as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from June 2020 to January 2021, where she oversaw IT modernization efforts, cybersecurity strategy, and technology investments across DHS’s diverse operational components. Before that, she was the Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response at the Department of Energy (DOE) from 2018 to 2020, a role in which she led cybersecurity risk mitigation strategies for critical energy infrastructure.
Following her tenure in government, Evans transitioned to the private and nonprofit sectors, serving as a partner at KE&T Partners and as Managing Director of the Cyber Readiness Institute, where she worked to advance cybersecurity awareness and workforce development. She also co-led a 2022 National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) study examining CISA’s role in building a national cybersecurity workforce, reinforcing her deep involvement in federal cybersecurity strategy and policy development.
Evans’s federal service extends beyond recent years. During the George W. Bush administration, she served as the Administrator for the Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), where she managed $71 billion in government-wide IT investments and played a key role in modernizing federal IT infrastructure and cybersecurity policies.
The leadership landscape at CISA remains in flux, as former Energy Department cybersecurity officials Sean Plankey and Nick Andersen have been named among the top contenders for CISA Director and Deputy Chief positions in the new administration, though no official nominations have been made.