Military Archives - Page 30 of 75

Catherine Aucella

Executive Director of the US’s National Security Agency.

Violet Hill Gordon

Violet Gordon served as an officer in the WAC’s 32nd Company, as well as with the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion.

Essie Dell O’Bryant Woods

Staff Sergeant Essie Woods and her sisters, one older and one younger, all enlisted in the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps in 1943; member of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion

Dr Margaret Williams Weir

The first Aboriginal person to matriculate to an Australian university. In January 1957 the University of Queensland offered her a scholarship and she commenced an arts degree.

Velva Klaessy

In 1944, she joined the World War II cryptologic effort, remaining in the field long after the war.

Alyce Dixon

Member of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion

Annie Etheridge

As a nurse, vivandière, and “Daughter of the Regiment,” Etheridge cemented herself in US Civil War history as a woman unafraid to provide aid in the heart of a battlefield.

1978: Dr. Doris H. Merritt was the first woman to chair the Board of Regents for the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, where she was instrumental in establishing the library’s electronic information system.

April Doss

April Falcon Doss was named General Counsel for the National Security Agency in May 2022.

Ms. Doss first came to the National Security Agency in 2003. Over the next thirteen years, she served as a senior policy officer working on information sharing issues in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, managed operational programs and technology innovation efforts, was posted overseas as a foreign liaison officer, and served as the Associate General Counsel for Intelligence Law before resigning from NSA.

Between 2016 and 2022, Ms. Doss held a number of positions in the public and private sector. She worked in private law practice as a partner at a major U.S. law firm, where she chaired the Cybersecurity and Privacy practice group. She served as Senior Minority Counsel for the Russia Investigation in the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Most recently before returning to NSA, Ms. Doss was the Executive Director of the Georgetown Institute for Technology Law and Policy at Georgetown University.

Ms. Doss has held numerous teaching appointments over the years, including as a senior lecturer at Georgetown Law School and as adjunct faculty at the University of Maryland and University of Baltimore law schools.

Ms. Doss graduated magna cum laude from Yale, earned her J.D. degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and holds an M.F.A. degree from Goucher College. She is the author of the award-winning book “Cyber Privacy: Who Has Your Data and Why You Should Care.”