Laurie Buckhout is Performing the Duties of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy. She is also the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy.  The Cyber Policy office is responsible for establishing DoD cyberspace policy and strategy, providing guidance and oversight on DoD cyberspace activities, and managing DoD’s primary external relationships across the U.S. government, key domestic stakeholders, and our allies and partners.

Ms. Buckhout is a retired Regular Army Colonel with 26 years of world-wide assignments and deployments, including commanding a battalion level task force as part of the initial spearhead attack into Iraq in 2003.  Post-military retirement, she founded her own business, Corvus Consulting, a strategic consulting and services group specializing in Electronic Warfare and Cyberspace Operations.  She is also a past President of the Association of Old Crows, the International Electronic Warfare Association; and served as a Special Government Employee supporting the US Department of Commerce.  She has extensive experience working with Federal and Congressional organizations on legal, budgetary, and legislative matters. She has been an adjunct professor at National Defense University, the Marine Corps University and George Mason University, lecturing on Cyberspace Operations and Electronic Warfare.

Ms. Buckhout holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from James Madison University, a Master of Military Arts and Science in National Military Strategy, and a Master of Science in Information Management from Webster University. Her awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Bronze Star, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal (two awards), and the Meritorious Service Medal (four awards).  She also wears the Combat Action Badge, the Parachutist Badge, and the Joint Staff, White House, and Army Staff Badges, and more.