Lori Wade

Lori Wade is the CIA’s Chief Learning Officer. In this role, Ms. Wade provides the strategic oversight of all Agency learning and training programs to ensure quality, efficiency, standards, accessibility, and impact.  She is driving integration across Agency training and learning organizations and provides governance, oversight, and decision-making to develop a dynamic and highly-trained workforce through innovative, world-class learning.

In May of 2022, on a joint duty assignment to the ODNI, Ms. Wade was appointed as the Intelligence Community Chief Data Officer (IC CDO). In this role, Ms. Wade was responsible for leading the Intelligence Community’s strategic initiative to re-imagine the future of the IC’s data landscape in the digital era. Ms. Wade has a wealth of executive leadership experience, expertise, and passion for solving digital, data, and organizational challenges, driving change, and delivering results with impact. She has more than 20 years of experience working in and leading diverse technology, data, and AI/ML teams across the IC in both a private and public capacity.

Ms. Wade has held a variety of CIA’s senior positions and led large digital and data operational enablement initiatives across the CIA and IC, and in partnership with foreign partners, private sector, and academia. Her deep expertise is supplemented with both professional and academic organizational learning expertise, positioning her to lead a strategic focus that balances readying the workforce for current capabilities, with a more transformational focus on emerging technologies and the future of work. Ms. Wade also served as the CIA’s Deputy Chief Data Officer and Deputy Director of the Agency Data Office, and as the DDI Chief in the East Asia and Pacific Mission Center, Korea Mission Center, and Global Issues Mission Center. 

In prior roles at ODNI, Ms. Wade served as Chief of the Mission Capabilities Group in the Office of the Deputy DNI for Intelligence Integration. She also served as Chief Operating Officer for the National Counterterrorism Center, as well as Chief of Staff for NCTC’s Directorate of Intelligence. Prior to joining the government, Ms. Wade worked in private sector, where she completed assignments across the IC, to include with NRO, FBI, and DHS/CBP.

Ms. Wade’s experience and expertise in organizational learning is supplemented with a Master of Science degree in Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management from George Mason University and a B.S. in Business Administration and Marketing from Western Carolina University.