Developing Yourself as a Leader with Renee Wynn

Sarah Moffat is joined by Renee Wynn, former Chief Information Officer for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), for an inspiring talk about how she navigated her career to become the longest-serving CIO in NASA history. Renee shares her best tips for how to be seen and heard, how to ask great questions, and why it's important to have your own personal board of directors.

Ms. Wynn's insights, candor, and advice is so poignant and relevant. Renee discusses why she believes being a life-long learner is critical for any leader and how to respond, rather than react, in situations. If you're wondering about whether or not its okay to get emotional and be vulnerable at work, we talk about that, too! You can reach Renee on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/renee-wynn-8935a24/.

Renee's Bio

Renee P. Wynn retired April 30th as the NASA Chief Information Officer after 30-years of federal service. She recently started her own business, RP Wynn Consulting, LLC to continue to serve the federal government in a different way.

As the NASA CIO, Ms. Wynn led the effort to collaborate with the complex NASA mission programs to improve NASA’s global cybersecurity posture and continuously transform IT management. Ms. Wynn oversaw an IT Portfolio of more than $2B and provided global IT services to more than 60,000 customers, including operations in Russia to support launches to the International Space Station.  Ms. Wynn led the effort to overhaul NASA’s cybersecurity posture and went from “high risk” to “managing risk” in 4 years, this includes space operation and communication systems.   Ms. Wynn joined NASA in July 2015 as Deputy Chief Information Officer and became the Chief Information Officer in September 2015. 

Ms. Wynn came to NASA from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) where she had served as the Acting CIO and Assistant Administrator for the Office of Environmental Information since July 2013. At EPA, Ms. Wynn had served as the Deputy CIO and Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Environmental Information from April 2011 to July 2013.  Ms. Wynn spent 25 years with EPA before joining NASA. 

Ms. Wynn had been working in the federal CIO community since 2011 and has brought her experience working on national policy matters, information systems development, program management plus legislative and budget formulation skills to good use in her role as CIO. 

Ms. Wynn was recently selected as a 2020 National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) Fellow.  Fellows are nominated and selected from a slate of highly qualified individuals.  A Fellow will serve for two years to support NAPA’s efforts to address current and emerging issues to the government.  

Ms. Wynn holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from DePauw University, Indiana.