We are honored to announce Capitol Tech alumnus Dr. Joseph L. Billingsley as the featured speaker for our 2025 Commencement, held Saturday, May 3, at our campus in Laurel, Maryland.
Since 2023, Dr. Billingsley has served at the White House as a Senior Policy Advisor within the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD). He is the Founder of the Military Cyber Professionals Association (MCPA), a national educational nonprofit charity. He is also an Adjunct Professor and Advisor of the Cyber Intelligence Initiative at The Institute of World Politics (IWP), where he established the Cyber Embassy Night series and teaches the Cyber Strategy Development course.
He has been a Director at the National Defense University’s College of Information and Cyberspace (NDU CIC), creator and moderator of the National Service Panel at the world’s largest hacker conference (DEF CON), Special Advisor of the peer-reviewed journal Military Cyber Affairs, peer reviewer for Joint Force Quarterly, book editor for Integrated Deterrence and Cyberspace, adjunct faculty at The George Washington University, Advisor of the Cyber Security Forum Initiative, reviewer for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, judge at the Atlantic Council’s Cyber 9/12 Strategy Competition, and Fellow at the Center for Network Innovation and Experimentation.
He is a former U.S. Army Strategist (Functional Area 59), Cyber Warfare Officer (17A), and Signal Corps Officer (25A), and was also trained as a Military Intelligence and Signals Intelligence Officer. In uniform, he served in various executive and staff positions at each echelon from platoon to general staff. His expeditionary activities include a 15-month Surge deployment to Iraq as part of the 1st Armored Division (Multi-National Division–North), engagement activities in the former Warsaw Pact, serving underway on the Mediterranean Sea aboard the USS Mount Whitney during the Arab Spring, and earning the highest level of the Military Proficiency Badge from the Bundeswehr.
Dr. Billingsley is a graduate of programs at the Naval War College, Army War College, Military Intelligence School, and Army School of Information Technology. He holds a B.A. in History from the University of Connecticut, where he founded the History Club. Selected as the inaugural Army Cyber Scholar, he was the first Army student to be awarded a M.S. in Cyber Systems and Operations from the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), where he also earned a Graduate Certificate in Cyber Wargaming. He received doctoral training in Information Sciences at NPS and earned his Ph.D. in Cyber Leadership at Capitol Technology University.
Please join us and Dr. Billingsley by watching our May 3 livestream on YouTube or viewing the replay video to hear him speak and take part in our day of celebration!
For additional resources and information, visit our website.