Christy K. Wilder is an Assistant Director of the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) with a focus on the government-wide Background Investigations (BI) mission.

In conjunction with the Director of DCSA, Ms. Wilder is responsible for the oversight and management of the government’s largest security organization, dedicated to ensuring a trusted workforce for both the Department and the rest of the federal government as the nation’s primary investigative service provider. Additionally, Ms. Wilder serves as a key member in the government-wide interagency initiative, Trusted Workforce 2.0, to advance personnel vetting reform and modernization.

Prior to her current role, Ms. Wilder served as one of two Deputy Directors of DCSA in its first year to minimize disruption and serve as a catalyst for the integration of legacy
Defense Security Service (DSS), the DoD Consolidated Adjudication Facility (CAF), and the National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB). Under her leadership, DCSA met many of its goals, including successfully eliminating its case inventory excess, meeting investigative timeliness goals for the first time since 2014, reducing the adjudication inventory and meeting its respective timeliness goals, and lowering prices for over 105 customer agencies during its first year.

From 2016 to 2019, she served as the NBIB Deputy Director (and Chief of Staff) where she oversaw a workforce of 9,000 personnel and a budget of $1.4 billion. Prior to, she served as the Deputy Manager of the NBIB Transition Team overseeing the establishment of NBIB, the reforming of the security clearance process, and the strengthening of how the government conducts background investigations, as part of the President’s goals.

In the six years prior to her appointment to the Deputy Manager position, Ms. Wilder worked for the National Counterintelligence and Security Center overseeing the end-to-end vetting processes across the federal government and served as the primary interface to Congress on behalf of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on counterintelligence and security matters. Ms. Wilder began her federal career as a background investigator for DSS in 2003.

Ms. Wilder received a Master of Science degree in General/Theoretical Psychology, magna cum laude, in 1997 from Appalachian State University,