Itamara Lochard

Professor ltamara Lochard, PhD is a certified mediator and Director of Cyber Policy Studies in the CEC Dean's Office at George Mason University (GMU). In 2012, she created the first civilian, interdisciplinary academic program addressing the interface of technology with peace, conflict, and communications as the Founding Director of a Cyber Policy Initiative in the Office of the President at Middlebury Institute for International Studies. She exported this vision to the U.S. National Defense University's Institute for National Security Studies (U.S. Department of Defense) as a Senior Fellow. She then accepted a joint appointment at GMU in 2016 to develop it further first at C4I, then CARE, and since January 2022 in the CEC Dean's Office.

Creating novel efforts is a passion for ltamara. In 2008, she developed the first Terrorists' Use of Cyber Course for NATO, which continues to this day. It was launched at the Center of Excellence - Defense against Terrorism (COE-DAT) where it became a staple, and it is now also taught at the NATO School in Oberammergau. Additionally, as an advisor to U.S. combatant commander/NATO SACEUR Admiral Stavridis, she co-created the first U.S. European Command (EUCOM)-funded computer network operation, military-to-military familiarization exercises along partner U.S. national guard components. These were executed in Estonia and the Republic of Georgia, then later served as a model for other partner countries in Europe. Based on this experience and the lessons from the Estonian Kaitseliit, she developed and commanded the first U.S. "civilian" cyber unit in U.S. defense forces at the rank of COL (MDDF). This effort has since spread to 16 other states to date.

Academically, ltamara has examined sub-state groups' para-state functions since 1988, tracking them with aggregated governance and influence metrics. In 2004, she copyrighted a model of their organizational structures, tactics, techniques, procedures, and areas of cooperation as well as the use of information, communication and technology (ICT) and Strategic Communications. These topics have served as the basis for her work with NATO CoEs in Turkey, Latvia, Romania, and Estonia as well as with NATO Rapid Deployable Corps (NRDC)-Italy. These research efforts were supported by multiple grants from the U.S. Office of Naval Research and various NATO sub-divisions, among others. She has presented her findings on various aspects of irregular war and Strategic Communications at numerous government, NATO, and United Nations fora. She currently has a five-year, multi-million dollar Minerva Research Initiative award in which she employs a novel approach to understanding crisis communication. Minervas are jointly administered by the Office of Basic Research and the Office of Policy at the U.S. Department of Defense, in close collaboration with the Office of Naval Research.

For 15 years, ltamara was also a Senior Researcher at the International Security Studies Program at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy teaching graduate seminars and serving on multiple academic committees. She also spent several years as a contributing editor for Princeton University's Journal of Public & International Affairs. Moreover, she applied her academic knowledge to train pre-lSAF deployment soldiers at NATO Rapid Deployment Corps-Turkey (NRDC-T) and created several week-long Advanced Irregular War modules for U.S. Special Forces at Joint Special Operations University (JSOU).

Additionally, ltamara has actively engaged in developing and teaching executive education to mid-to-senior political and military officers from Armenia, the Balkans, Estonia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) nations, and the United Arab Emirates. She still develops and teaches Senior Executive Service (SES) courses on cognitive warfare at the U.S. National Defense University.

ltamara holds a BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University along with three master's degrees and PhD from Stanford University and the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy. All were awarded with honors. She received a Presidential Award for Leadership and Public Service at Tufts, an Order of Thor from the Military Cyber Professional Association at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, and a Medal of Honor for Special Services from the Republic of Estonia's Cyber Defense League (2011).