Bio:
Mark Laurent Asselin, Ph.D., Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service
CURRENT POSITION: Dr. Mark Laurent Asselin is dual hatted as the National Security Agency’s (NSA) Chief of Strategic Engagement and Chief of the Presidential Continuity Team 2024. He serves as NSA’s focal point to orchestrate and centralize engagements with and contributions to the White House and within the public-private sector. The Strategic Engagement group, in close collaboration with partners across NSA, creates opportunities for outreach and participation in venues at the White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), industry, and academia. Strategic Engagement is also the home of the Center for Cryptologic History and the National Cryptologic Museum.
PRIOR POSITIONS: Before entering on duty at NSA in 2000, Dr. Asselin taught Chinese language and literature at the University of Washington, Lewis & Clark College, and the University of Minnesota. At NSA, after working as a Chinese language analyst, he was appointed technical leader for a SIGINT support to counterintelligence (CI) mission, and for a decade served at various levels of management in the CI mission area. He then stood up a new division targeting foreign commercial threats. In 2013, he was named to be the first chief of the Office of China and East Asia Cyber Analysis in the NSA Threat Operations Center and subsequently established and led the Office of Counterintelligence and Cyber (CIC)East Asia and Pacific division. In 2017, he was briefly the CIC Deputy Chief when he was promoted to the senior ranks.
On joint duty assignment to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA, 2017-19), Dr. Asselin advised the Director, DIA as the Defense Intelligence Officer for Cyber Issues. In partnership with the U.S. Cyber Command J2 he led working groups among the Combatant Commands to clarify roles and responsibilities for joint intelligence production of the operational environment, intelligence preparation of the battlespace, and target system analysis. He established the Defense Cyberspace Intelligence Committee, responsible for receiving, validating, and assigning all cyberspace-related intelligence requirements for the Defense Intelligence All-Source Analysis Enterprise.
Most recently, Dr. Asselin concurrently served as the 24th Commandant of the National Cryptologic University, the Training Director NSA/Central Security Service (CSS) or TDNC, and the Deputy Chief of the NSA Talent Learning and Development group. As Commandant, Dr. Asselin led a nationally accredited school with six campuses globally, and that offered over 1,500 unique courses. As TDNC, he was the principal executive to the Director, NSA/Chief, CSS in all matters related to cryptologic training.
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND: Dr. Asselin is a scholar of pre-modern Chinese language and literature, about which he published a critically acclaimed academic book, and also keeps current on modern Chinese political and cultural affairs. Among his awards and honors are numerous special achievement awards, a National Intelligence Meritorious Unit Citation, and the prestigious ODNI Galileo Award for proposing to adapt a virtual marketplace to Intelligence Community product dissemination.
EDUCATION: Dr. Asselin received a B.A. in mass communications from the University of Vermont. He earned master’s degrees in fine arts history from the University of Colorado in Boulder and in Asian languages and literature from the University of Washington. He was granted a Ph.D. in Asian languages and literature (Chinese) from the University of Washington in 1997. Since then, he has focused on leadership development.
PERSONAL: Born in Biddeford, Maine, Dr. Asselin grew up in central Vermont. He resides in Bethesda with his wife, Son Vuong, a State Department architect for Overseas Building Operations. Their daughter, Sydney Asselin, is a Los Angeles-based lighting designer in the music industry. Dr. Asselin enjoys reading and writing, co-hosts a podcast for the Paulist Fathers, and serves as a Roman Catholic deacon.
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