Navigating a Career in National Security: A Mother/Daughter Perspective with Sue Gordon and KC Koepp

RSVP Required Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

The Belfer Center's Intelligence Project, Amazing Women of the Intelligence Community (AWIC) and the Women in Defense, Diplomacy, and Development will host a fireside chat with Senior Fellow Sue Gordon and her daughter, KC Koepp.

Advance registration required. This event will be capped at 50 participants to allow for intimate conversation and Q&A.

Date: Thu, May 6, 2021 Time: 05:00pm - 06:00pm Location: Online

About

Please join the Belfer Center's Intelligence Project, Harvard's Women in Defense, Diplomacy, and Development Student Group (W3D), and the Amazing Women of the Intelligence Community (AWIC) for a fireside chat with Senior Fellow Sue Gordon and her daughter KC Koepp.

From forging your own career trajectory to navigating gender bias, in this intimate conversation Sue and KC will discuss their careers from the perspectives of two generations of women in national security.

This event will be capped at 50 participants to allow for intimate conversation and Q&A. Register now!

About the Organizers

The Belfer Center's Intelligence Project seeks to build a new generation of intelligence practitioners prepared to serve in a rapidly changing world and to help future policymakers and intelligence consumers understand how best to interact with intelligence to gain a decision advantage. Building on multi-disciplinary research being conducted at the Belfer Center, from history to human rights and cyber technologies, the Intelligence Project links intelligence agencies with Belfer researchers, Faculty, and Kennedy School students, to enrich their education and impact public policy.

Amazing Women of the IC (AWIC) is a grassroots, self-organized group with a mission to create a community where women in the IC are mentored and supported throughout their career by forming real relationships with one another. AWIC is a community of junior, mid-career, and senior women in the intelligence community, spanning government, industry, academia, and non-profit sectors.

Harvard W3D: Women in Defense, Diplomacy, and Development is an innovative network dedicated to connecting and cultivating global leaders who work together toward sustainable peace. Founded in 2013, by three Harvard Kennedy School alumni, W3D aims to build trust and collaboration between the defense, diplomacy, and development sectors to create holistic policy decisions and solutions. Based on the knowledge that trusted relationships and inclusive groups are the key to real collaboration and positive change, W3D seeks to tap the under-utilized power of women as influential global leaders for sustainable peace through gender equality.

Speaker Biographies

KC Koepp is rising first year medical student at the Texas A&M College of Medicine. In a month she will receive her Master of Science degree in Medical Sciences from the University of North Texas Health Science Center. She is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps after serving for eight years as a KC-130J pilot including two deployments to the Middle East. She separated as a Captain and plans to return to Naval service upon completion of medical school. KC graduated and commissioned from the United States Naval Academy in 2010 where she majored in chemistry. She played varsity soccer her freshman year and then switched to varsity basketball for her remaining three years. She served as the basketball team captain her senior year. She grew up in Vienna, VA playing soccer, basketball, and swimming. KC is inspired daily by her husband (Eric) and son (Jackson). In her free time, KC likes to hike the National Parks, complete various renovation projects (with the heavy use of Google), and work out.

Susan M. (Sue) Gordon was Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence until August 2019. A longtime member of the Intelligence Community, she has nearly three decades of intelligence experience. As PDDNI, she managed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and focused on advancing intelligence integration across the Intelligence Community. Earlier, she was Deputy Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) where she drove NGA’s transformation to meet the challenges of a 21st century intelligence agency.

Gordon has worked in a variety of leadership roles spanning numerous intelligence organizations and disciplines. Prior to her assignment with NGA, she served for 27 years at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), rising to senior executive positions in each of the Agency’s four directorates: operations, analysis, science and technology, and support.