Venice M. 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. Mrs. Goodwine leads three directorates – Enterprise Information Technology, Data and Artificial Intelligence, and Cybersecurity – that enable the missions of 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 CIO, Mrs. 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. Mrs. Goodwine also leads career management initiatives for 12,000 IT/Cyber civilian personnel across all human resources facets from recruiting to professional development.
Mrs. Goodwine has more than 30 years of information technology experience spanning private industry, active and reserve military service and the federal and Department of Defense 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, Mrs. 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 aggressively moved to implement Zero Trust architecture, signing the department’s Zero Trust Strategy and driving the department’s Zero Trust Implementation Plan to completion, obtaining the Secretary of the Air Force’s signature. As the Director of EIT, she also oversaw the award of over $200 million in cloud capability contracts positioning the department for mission-critical cloud applications in a multi-level security environment. Mrs. Goodwine 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 full time equivalents, 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.
Mrs. Goodwine 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.
EDUCATION
1994 Bachelor of Science, Computer and Information Systems, University of Maryland, College Park
1998 Master of Business Administration, William Carey College, Gulfport, Miss.
2003 Officer Training School, McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base, Knoxville, Tenn.
2009 Air and Space Basic Course, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.
2010 Cyberspace 200, Professional Continuing Education, Air Force Institute of Technology Center for Cyberspace Research, Ohio
2012 Squadron Officer School, Maxwell AFB, Ala., by correspondence
2013 Cyberspace 300, Professional Continuing Education, AFIT/Center for Cyberspace Research, Ohio
2014 Junior Officer Leadership Development, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.
2014 Chief Information Officer Executive Program, University of Maryland, College Park
2015 Command and Staff College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., by correspondence
2017 Warfighting Integration Course, Air Education and Training Command, San Antonio, Texas, by correspondence
2020 Joint and Combined Warfighter School, Joint Forces Staff College, Norfolk, Va.
2022 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Artificial Intelligence Accelerator
2023 CDAO's Leading Data and AI-Enabled Organizations, John Hopkins University APL
CIVILIAN CAREER CHRONOLOGY
1. 1995–1997, Lead, Unix Systems Administrator, Stennis Space Center, Bay St. Louis, Miss.
2. 1997–1999, Program Manager, Defense Information Systems Agency Continuity and Test Facility, Slidell, La.
3. 1999–2001, System Support Engineer, Silicon Graphics Inc., Silicon Valley, Calif.
4. 2001–2002, Testing and COOP analyst, DISA Continuity and Test Facility, Slidell, La.
5. 2003–2004, Systems Analyst, Lockheed Martin, Stennis Space Center, Bay St. Louis, Miss.
6. 2004–2006, Department Chair, Information Technology, Central Texas College, Okinawa, Japan
7. 2006–2009, Supervisory, IT Specialist, Marine Corps Base Butler, Okinawa, Japan
8. 2009–2014, Regional COR, Marine Corps Systems Command, Okinawa, Japan
9. 2014–2018, Senior Cybersecurity Advisor, Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Va.
10. 2018–2021, Chief Information Security Officer, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
11. 2021–2023, Director, Enterprise Information Technology, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Department of the Air Force, the Pentagon, Arlington, Va.
12. 2023–present, Chief Information Officer, Department of the Air Force, the Pentagon, Arlington, Va.
AWARDS AND HONORS
2025 Fed100 Eagle Award
2025 Wash100 Award
2024 Presidential Rank Award (Meritorious)
2024 Capital ORBIE Award
2024 Defense IT Flywheel Award
2024 Wash100 Award
2024 Billington Public Private Partnership Leadership Award
2023 Fed100 Award
2023 DefenseScoop 50 Award
2023 Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology Pioneer Award
2022 Fed100 Award
2020 WashingtonExec Top 25 Cybersecurity Executives to Watch
2020 FedScoop50 Cybersecurity Leader of the Year Award Nominee
2020 WashingtonExec Pinnacle Award for Cybersecurity Government Executive of the Year
2020 G2Xchange Women in Leadership Award
Defense Meritorious Service Medal
Meritorious Service Medal with two devices
Joint Service Commendation Medal
Air and Space Commendation Medal
Air and Space Reserve Forces Meritorious Service Medal
PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATIONS
Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), ISC2
Certified Level 3 Acquisition Professional in Information Technology, DAU
Project Management Professional Certified, PMI
Certified Level 1 Acquisition Professional, Program Management, DAU
Certified, Information Technology Information Library Foundations
(Current as of April 2025)