Shelby Pierson

Shelby Pierson serves as the Deputy Director of Source Operations and Management Directorate, where she provides oversight and guidance for the Source mission areas by identifying and advocating to IC, DoD, and partners a broad range of Foundation Based Operations, Safety of Navigation, Commercial GEOINT discovery, assessment, and acquisition, tasking and collection, Geomatics, and Production Management missions. Prior to her current position, Ms. Pierson was the federal government’s first Intelligence Community Election Threats Executive (ETE) and served as principal advisor to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) on all election security-related matters. As the ETE, Ms. Pierson was responsible for leading and aligning all relevant ODNI election security efforts, including integrating support to intelligence operations, collections, analysis, and partner engagement. Ms. Pierson was the National Intelligence Crisis Manager for the 2018 mid-term elections where she managed critical election security issues and increased information sharing operations across the Intelligence Community (IC). Of note, she was instrumental in leading substantial improvements in intelligence sharing and management improving stakeholder confidence in federal election support, resilience, and security of the 2020 Presidential elections. From 2017-2019, Ms. Pierson was the National Intelligence Manager (NIM) for Russia, Europe, and Eurasia, being the first officer to hold such a position from NGA. She was the principal advisor to the DNI on regional issues and led the IC’s efforts on integration, collection, analysis, and national-level strategies. Appointed to the Senior Intelligence Service in 2013 and with over 20 years of service in the Intelligence Community, Ms. Pierson has led the GEOINT posture across Russian, Ukraine, Asia, and Syria. She has a unique, diverse background that includes GEOINT sources, methods, regional, functional and policy matters that bridge multiple disciplines across the IC, as well as substantial experience in the field of adversarial denial and deception. Her career began as imagery analyst working on Iraqi ground forces; she prides herself on her experience in the analytic ranks as instantiating her commitment to tradecraft and intelligence integrity. Ms. Pierson holds a B.A. in International Affairs from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, with an emphasis in national security and environmental policy. In January of 2017, she was awarded the President’s Meritorious Rank Award for Senior Intelligence Service officers. Ms. Pierson resides in Northern Virginia with her family.