Meet the Person who is helping set the R&D priorities for the U.S. Intelligence Community

Dr. David Bray of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is giving the keynote talk at Suits and Spooks Boston: Offensive Tactics Against Critical Infrastructure. I've asked Dr. Bray to speak because he's the principal strategist for a national commission whose mandate is to determine the high priority research topics for the U.S. Intelligence Community over the next 10 years. I've had the privilege of speaking with he and his colleagues at the commission and found them to be very well-informed, inquisitive, open-minded and highly motivated. If you provide services to any of the 16 agencies of the U.S. Intelligence Community, you should be very interested in the work of Dr. Bray and his team. His bio follows:

Dr. David A. Bray currently serves as Principal Strategist and Senior National Intelligence
Service Executive with the National Commission for Review of Research and Development
Programs of the U.S. Intelligence Community. He overseeing a team of interagency assignees
working with twelve Congressionally appointed bipartisan Commissioners working with
Executive Branch per Public Law 111-259, reviewing the full range of current research and
development programs under the purview of the IC, to include individual agencies, IARPA,
DARPA, In-Q-Tel, and others.

He previously served as Executive for Innovation, Integration, and Interoperability, Office
of the Program Manager, Information Sharing Environment starting in 2010. The Program
Manager has government-wide authority to plan, oversee the build-out, and manage use of the
ISE to implement the President’s terrorism-related information sharing priorities. Dr. Bray’s
work focuses on empowering the ISE partnerships of five communities – Defense, Intelligence,
Homeland Security, Foreign Affairs, and Law Enforcement – in support of whole-of-government
solutions for assured information sharing, protection, and access.

Prior to joining ISE, Dr. Bray served as a strategist at the Institute for Defense Analyses and
the Science and Technology Policy Institute. In 2009, he deployed to Afghanistan as a Special
Advisor to STRATEGIC EFFECTS for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force and U.S.
Forces Afghanistan, with the task of helping to “think differently” on critical strategic efforts.

Dr. Bray also served as IT Chief for the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Program at
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he led the technology aspects of
the bioterrorism program’s response to 9/11, anthrax in 2001, SARS, and other outbreaks. He
started working for the government in 1993, providing strategy on crisis response, collaboration,
cybersecurity, national intelligence, information sharing, and innovation. He has worked as a
senior developer and project manager for the government and private sector.

Dr. Bray holds a PhD in information systems, a MSPH in public health informatics, and a
BSCI in computer science and biology from Emory University, alongside two post-doctoral
associateships with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Collective
Intelligence and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Leadership for a Networked World Program.
He also serves as a Visiting Associate with the National Defense University and on the Board of
Directors for the Senior Executives Association.

The Early Bird rate for Suits and Spooks Boston will end on October 1st. More information including how to register can be found here.