National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency gets first female director
Letitia Long becomes the first woman to lead a major U.S. intelligence agency.
"We are witnessing history with Tish’s ascension as the first woman to serve as director of a major intelligence agency," said James Clapper, who was confirmed as director of national intelligence on Aug. 5, in an announcement from NGA. An NGA spokeswoman acknowledged that there had been female heads of small agencies such as the intelligence arm of the State Department, according to the Associated Press.
NGA provides combat support to the Defense Department with geospatial intelligence that involves satellite or airborne images combined with other intelligence and geospatial information such as maps and charts. As head of NGA, Long will be the DNI’s principal adviser and intelligence agencies’ functional manager for geospatial intelligence.
Most recently, Long was deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from May 2006 to July 2010.
The ceremony was held at NGA's new facility, still under construction at Fort Belvoir’s North Area in Springfield, Va.
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