NGA Deputy Director Stacey Dixon Named to 2021 Wash100 for Driving Innovation in GEOINT Platforms; Digital Transformation to Integrate Emerging Tech

Executive Mosaic is pleased to introduce Stacey Dixon, deputy director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), as a recipient of the 2021 Wash100 Award, the most coveted and prestigious award in all of government contracting (GovCon). This is her second consecutive Wash100 Award win.

“Stacey Dixon has won her second consecutive Wash100 Award based on her drive to build more integrated NGA solutions through working directly with our community as an active advocate for reimagining the future and actively driving a response to the pandemic,” said Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic and founder of the Wash100 Award.

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Dixon was named the eight deputy director of NGA in 2019 after spending over three years as the deputy director and director with the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA).

In her current role with NGA, Dixon helped lead efforts to drive innovation and ensure U.S. tactical advantage in the GEOINT landscape in line with NGA’s technology focus areas. As highlighted in NGA’s technology strategy, the agency seeks to drive digital transformation in its workspaces and integrate cloud, artificial intelligence, and high performance computing into the GEOINT enterprise.

In line with its mission goals, NGA partnered with the Missouri Technology Corporation (MTC) in Nov. 2020 to establish an accelerator for early-stage GEOINT companies to further develop their capabilities for defense and commercial applications. Capital Innovators, who serves as the initiative’s operator, is slated to launch the accelerator in late 2021.

Around the same time, NGA updated its Global Enhanced GEOINT Delivery (G-EGD) repository to include satellite imagery from commercial entities like BlackSky Global and Planet Federal for use by other agencies and allies. G-EGD currently contains images uploaded by Maxar Technologies’ DigitalGlobe subsidiary.

NGA also launched a pilot effort to integrate radiofrequency data from industry partners with the agency’s GEOINT analytic platforms to support applications such as maritime missions.

More recently, Dixon advocated that the NGA needs to develop faster platforms and services in March 2021 as the U.S. edge in GEOINT is being challenged. She reiterated that the NGA needs the help from its peers to reimagine the geoint enterprise.

“Moonshot for us is way more than a buzzword,” said Dixon. “It all started because of a need to focus on the reemergence of great power competition. We need to think big not only as an agency, but as this larger community, as an enterprise.”

Back in Dec. 2020, NGA announced that the foundations of its planned $1.7 billion Next NGA West facility in St. Louis are being laid ahead of the scheduled move-in of approximately 3,150 employees by 2025.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) oversees construction of N2W, which is envisioned to span 97 acres and house industry partnering activities, educational events and other GEOINT operations.

NGA’s momentum for its projects continued through 2021 with the Clover Program, which serves as a follow-on to the Emerald initiative and covers business and acquisition management, operational services and program support.

Aside from its work with federal and defense partners, NGA also puts focus on efforts to support and diversify its workforce. In December, NGA collaborated with Mitre and disability-focused nonprofit Melwood for the Neurodiverse Federal Workforce initiative with the aim of providing opportunities for individuals with neurodiverse conditions, including those that fall within the autism spectrum.

“This is a tremendous learning opportunity for NGA,” noted Dixon. “It allows us to demonstrate that neurodiverse talent adds significant value to the [GEOINT] tradecraft and helps the agency better support its existing neurodiverse employees.”

For the defense sector, NGA was also able to help its workforce innovate amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. During a discussion at the 2020 Aspen Cyber Summit, Dixon said that telework has enabled employees to discover approaches to obtaining public data that can be integrated with classified information for agency missions.

“That’s the kind of environment we want,” said Dixon. “We want people who are willing to go learn new things and figure out how to make them work within the mission that we’ve given them.”

Executive Mosaic congratulates NGA and Stacey Dixon on her 2021 Wash100 Award. Dixon’s efforts to drive innovation and advanced capabilities for NGA and across the federal sector showcases her leadership and push for success that Executive Mosaic is honored to recognize with a second consecutive Wash100 Award.