Margaret Smith

Margaret Smith is a U.S. Army Cyber Officer with over fifteen years on Active Duty. Maggie originally enlisted in 2004 to complete her undergraduate education but serving quickly became a passion and turned into a career. She commissioned as a Military Intelligence Officer in 2013 after completing her MPP (with a focus in Homeland Security and Intelligence Policy) at Georgetown University with the Army’s Green to Gold Program. While at GU she was named a Tillman Scholar and received the Whittington Scholarship for second year students at the McCourt School. She is a trained senior watch officer, cyberspace operations planer, offensive cyberspace operations mission commander, and will take a position at the United States Military Academy’s Army Cyber Institute following her doctoral studies at George Washington University’s Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. She is currently studying the intersection of gender, terrorism, and technology by investigating female Islamic State supporters in the US but has also published work on the behavioral economics of the cellular phone app-market and cybersecurity preferences of senior executives in the private sector. Maggie is also a volunteer and advocate for previvors – women and men who inherit the BRCA 1 or 2 genetic mutation putting them at extremely high risk for developing breast, ovarian, or prostate cancer during their lifetimes. Sharing her personal experiences with preventive surgery, as a result of being BRCA 2 positive, with others facing a similar choice is a huge part of her life and personal healing process. She is extremely proud of her family: her daughter, Emily, is nine and in the sixth at Roland Park Country School in Baltimore, MD and her husband, Patrick (also a veteran), works for NASA at the Goddard Spaceflight Center. Maggie is an avid outdoorswoman and ultrarunner who is always looking to turn a weekend into a micro-adventure.