MAJGEN Michelle McGuinness

Major General Michelle McGuinness serves as the Deputy Director for Commonwealth Integration (DDCI) at the Defense Intelligence Agency. As DDCI, Michelle ensures DIA and the broader U.S. IC is best positioned to cooperate, collaborate, and integrate with key international partners and facilitate critical intelligence relationships. The role is the practical embodiment of the major partner integration lines of effort expressed in the 2022 U.S. National Defense Strategy, the 2021 Defense Intelligence Strategy, and the 2021 Interim National Security Strategy. Michelle has served in a range of tactical, operational, and strategic assignments in both Command and Staff appointments. Beginning her career in 1994 at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), Michelle graduated into the Australian Intelligence Corps and spent her formative years at the tactical level leading and managing intelligence operations in human intelligence, interrogation, and exploitation disciplines. Since 2005, she has served in several key intelligence roles focusing on partner engagement and interoperability, including within the U.S., as a liaison officer for DIO in Washington, DC, and as an integrated intelligence officer within the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO). She went on to serve in the Australian Army Headquarters in support of service-level engagement programs for several nations. For her service within the U.S., she has twice been awarded the U.S. Army Meritorious Service Medal. With experience in junior officer education and training, in 2014, she returned to ADFA as the Chief Instructor and Commanding Officer. In 2016, Michelle served as the Assistant Military Attaché at the Embassy of Australia in Washington, DC. For her service in these appointments, she was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross. Michelle’s senior officer appointments include Chief of Staff to the Chief of the Defence Force and Director General, Counterproliferation and Terrorism at the Australian Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO), where she led interagency intelligence efforts supporting whole-of-government counterproliferation missions. Michelle’s deployments include Timor-Leste and the Solomon Islands and her service at the JIEDDO in 2006 was in direct support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Politics and Bahasa Indonesian) and a Master of Arts (Strategy and Policy) from the University of New South Wales and a Master of International Public Policy with Distinction from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. She is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Michelle is married with two amazing school-aged children and enjoys travelling as a family, exploring food and the outdoors, and being active in her local community.