Suzanne E. Spaulding serves as Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security. As Under Secretary, she oversees the coordinated operational and policy functions of the Directorate’s subcomponents: Offices of Cybersecurity and Communications, Infrastructure Protection, Biometric Identity Management, Cyber and Infrastructure Analysis, and the Federal Protective Service, with a mission to reduce the risk to -- and enhance the resiliency of -- critical infrastructure, secure Federal facilities, and advance identity management and verification.

Ms. Spaulding has spent nearly 25 years working on national security issues for both Republican and Democratic Administrations and on both sides of the aisle of Congress. She was most recently a principal in the Bingham Consulting Group and Counsel for Bingham McCutchen LLP in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the private sector, she served as the minority staff director for the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence for Ranking Member Jane Harman (D-CA), and as general counsel for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. She also spent six years at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and served as senior counsel and legislative director for U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (PA).

In 2002, she was appointed by Virginia Governor Mark Warner to the Secure Commonwealth Panel, established after the attacks of September 11, 2001, to advise the governor and the legislature on preparedness issues in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Since then, Ms. Spaulding has worked with key critical infrastructure sectors including the nuclear power, electricity, and chemical sectors, and served as Security Counsel for the Business Roundtable

In addition, Ms. Spaulding served as the executive director of two congressionally mandated commissions: the National Commission on Terrorism, chaired by Amb. L. Paul Bremer III, and the Commission to Assess the Organization of the Federal Government to Combat the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, chaired by former CIA Director John Deutch. She was assistant general counsel at CIA, including a position as legal adviser to the Nonproliferation Center, and also spent several years in private practice.

In addition to running national commissions on terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, she has served on commissions on cybersecurity and homeland security, convened and participated in numerous academic and professional advisory panels, and is a frequent commentator in publications, media, and before Congress.

Ms. Spaulding was a Senior Fellow at George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute. She is the former Chair of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Law and National Security, and founder of the Cybersecurity Legal Task Force.

Ms. Spaulding earned both her law degree and undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia.