In This Story
Lori Wade has been named chief learning officer at the Central Intelligence Agency, stepping into a senior role that oversees the agency’s far-reaching learning and development strategy, and ensures employees are equipped with the skills they need today—and for the challenges ahead.
Wade said her 1999 degree in new professional studies with a concentration in organizational learning from the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University were instrumental in “preparing me for every position I had, during and after graduating,” she said.
Wade’s degree was awarded by an early iteration of what is now the Organization Development and Knowledge Management program—ODKM—an interdisciplinary, student-centered, executive format program that connects theory and practice while heightening change management skills in a variety of areas. ODKM is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.
“What I remember most about Lori is her curiosity,” said Professor Tojo Thatchenkery, founding director of ODKM. “She was fascinated by organizational complexity and saw the need for openness to new learning and to let go of old assumptions. It is not surprising Lori has achieved this level of success.”
Wade earned her undergraduate degree in business administration and marketing from Western Carolina University. Before she became a George Mason student, she became an employee, joining the university’s Professional Training and Development Program Office.
“While working at [George Mason], I began exploring master of business administration programs and felt dissatisfied with the curriculum I viewed as perpetuating traditional views of organizations,” she said. “The late 1990s were a transformative period for technology, marked by the rise of the internet, personal computers, and mobile phones. It felt like the MBA programs were not keeping pace and appeared to represent dated views of organizations, at least from my perspective at the time.”
These programs, she said, “did not align with what I had experienced or with the questions I had about how organizations work on the inside, how organizational structures need to transform, and how people and teams work in new and different ways.”
Using the resources available to her at George Mason, she was introduced to the school’s Program on Social and Organizational Learning, now ODKM.
“The program aligned with my interests and questions,” she said. “It was ahead of its time and focused on the future of work. It was an easy decision” to enroll.
The degree and its groundbreaking format provided Wade with “insights and learning, the instruction, and practical experience and application,” she said.
“I learned how organizations work from the inside and out, how teams collaborate and accomplish tasks through the use of technology—early human and machine learning—how to understand double-loop learning, how adults learn and work, and how to conduct ethnographic research within an organizational context.
“All of these combined helped as I first started working in national security, first in a consulting role and later as I transitioned into public service.”
The new appointment marks Wade’s return to the CIA after more than three years on a joint-duty assignment at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), where she served as intelligence community (IC) chief data officer and assistant director of national intelligence for data and partnership interoperability, developing and implementing the IC Data Strategy 2023–25.
Wade has held a variety of CIA’s senior positions and led large digital and data operational enablement initiatives across the CIA and IC, and in partnership with foreign partners, private sector, and academia. She served as the CIA’s deputy chief data officer and deputy director of the agency’s data office, and as the directorate of digital innovation chief in the East Asia and Pacific Mission Center, Korea Mission Center, and Global Issues Mission Center.
Prior to her work in public service, she worked for a decade at a management and consulting firm supporting FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and National Reconnaissance Office missions.
“There has not been a position, assignment, or effort I’ve worked on, including my current role, where I haven't applied what I've learned from [the Schar School] program,” Wade said.