Lisa Costa

Golden Defense

Lisa Costa sits at the helm of the nascent Space Force’s Chief Technology and Innovation Office, where she is charged with developing strategies and policies to advance research, development, test and evaluation across the service and deploying cutting-edge digital technologies to keep the Space Force at an edge over adversaries. As the Defense Department’s first truly digital service, the Space Force looks to Costa to understand how it can ensure its newly established organizational structures can integrate digitally. Some key efforts under her leadership include the Integrated Operations Network, the IT infrastructure that will serve as the foundation for the service’s digital presence, the Unified Data Library, a cloud-based repository for space domain awareness, and the “Spaceverse,” a digital environment that connects disparate guardians for training.