Venice Goodwine

CIO, Department of the Air Force

Speaker Bio

Venice Goodwine, a member of the Senior Executive Service, is the Chief Information Officer for the Department of the Air Force, comprised of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force. Ms. Goodwine leads three directorates–Enterprise Information Technology, Data and Artificial Intelligence, and Cybersecurity–and supports 20,000 cyber operations and support personnel around the globe with a portfolio valued at $17 billion. She provides oversight of the Air Force's Information Technology investment strategy from networks to cloud computing, Enterprise policies, data management, digital transformation, information resources management, information technology innovation initiatives, information assurance and related matters for the Department of the Air Force. As Chief Information Officer (CIO), Ms. Goodwine delivers cybersecurity and enforces Freedom of Information Act, Privacy Act laws and the ethical use of AI in the Department. She integrates warfighting and mission support capabilities by networking and securing air, space and terrestrial assets. Ms. Goodwine also leads career management initiatives for 10,000 IT/Cyber civilian personnel across all human resources facets from recruiting to professional development.


She has more than 30 years of information technology experience spanning private industry, active and reserve military service, and the federal civilian government. Her experience includes leading large IT organizations, developing agency-wide strategy and policy, establishing governance, overseeing cybersecurity operations, executing IT acquisition, and program management.


Immediately prior to this role, Ms. Goodwine served as the Director of Enterprise Information Technology within the Office of the Chief Information Officer for the Department of the Air Force. She also previously served as the Chief Information Security Officer for the United States Department of Agriculture, a cabinet-level agency. As the USDA CISO she oversaw $208 million in cybersecurity expenditures throughout the agency each year. She raised the agency’s FITARA cyber score from an F to a B, and led the agency to achieve a single unified security operations center by consolidating 128 federal and contractor FTEs, 57 processes, and 11 tools, valued at more than $8.2 million. She led the integration of Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation tools across more than 134,000 endpoints and 1,200 mobile devices.


Ms. Goodwine also had an extensive military career, joining the active duty Air Force in 1986 as a Signals Intelligence Analyst and transitioning to the Air Force Reserve where she received her commission in 2003 as a Communication and Information Officer, completing assignments at various levels including squadron, group, wing, joint, and combined, ultimately retiring from uniformed military service in 2022.


Goodwine was named a 2020 WashingtonExec Top 25 Cybersecurity Executives to Watch and won both the 2020 WashingtonExec Pinnacle Award for Cybersecurity Government Executive of the Year and the 2020 G2Xchange Women in Leadership awards. She also was nominated for the 2020 FedScoop50 Cybersecurity Leader of the Year award.