Liz Lyon

Elizabeth Lyon currently serves as the Deputy Director for the NGA Support Team to USAFRICOM. In this role, Ms. Lyon is responsible for ensuring USAFRICOM received timely, value-added GEOINT for operations, exercises and other engagements in support of U.S. Policy. As well as ensuring the health and welfare of all NGA employees assigned to USAFRICOM.

Ms. Lyon joined the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in 2015 serving as the Special Assistant to the Deputy Director. In this newly created roll, she was responsible for acquisition reform, technology innovation, and subject matter expertise in geospatial data, policy, partnerships, and standards. Following this assignment, she was selected to serve as the Senior GEOINT Authority for Geography and Cartography. In this role, she led professional certification for the Geospatial Tradecrafts, modernized cartographic and geographic work roles, created the International Program for Human Geography, and represented the United States Government in numerous international and national forums for geography standards and technology innovation.

Prior to her tenure at NGA, Ms. Lyon worked across the Defense, Development and Diplomacy communities through positions with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense. She has undergraduate degrees in Economics and French from Augustana College, Rock Island Illinois; a Masters of Science Degree from University of Illinois; an advanced graduate certificate in Computational Social Science from George Mason University; and was part of a national security cohort with Massachusetts Institute of Technology.