Speaker Bio

Ms. Luci Holemans has over 33 years of experience in the federal government, 27 of which have been at the FAA in various positions. Ms. Holemans started her career with the Navy testing GPS receivers for military aircraft. She developed scenarios in simulated environments that evaluated how these receivers reacted to spoofing and jamming. This included platforms that integrated GPS and inertial systems. After transferring to the FAA, she worked on the FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI) program from the beginning of its acquisition cycle though its transition/implementation. As the Eastern Service Area Transition Lead, she worked with the regional, facility, and engineering services to transition more than 6000 telecommunications services to FTI on schedule and below budget. As part of FTI, Ms. Holemans became heavily involved in the security requirements and testing at a time when cybersecurity was at its infancy from an agency perspective. After FTI, Ms. Holemans led her team in the development of ICAO telecommunications standards and in the coordination and implementation of telecommunications services such as MEVA II, AMHS, FTI International User Portal (IUP)) between the U.S. and CAR/SAM, Asia/Pac and Europe regions. Ms. Holemans has worked with the international ICAO community on the Aeronautical Fixed Service (AFS) modernization program and the integration of X.25, IPv4, and IPv6, and currently serves as the Vice Chair of the ICAO Cybersecurity Panel that is working to improve the collaboration and information exchange between member states on aviation cybersecurity matters.

In 2016, the Air Traffic Organization (ATO) made the decision to strengthen the cybersecurity posture of the National Airspace System by consolidating and integrating ATO Information Security Systems functions into a single accountable organization. Ms. Holemans established and led the organization that was officially stood up on October 2016. This well-integrated and highly productive ATO Cybersecurity organization is responsible for developing cybersecurity requirements and governance; designing and implementing enterprise cybersecurity solutions; testing, assessing, analyzing, and evaluating risk for all systems and services in the ATO critical infrastructure; performing cybersecurity exercises within the FAA and external to the FAA (to include other government agencies, private industry, and international partners); and acting as a catalyst for change in multiple functional areas, such as acquisition strategy, contracts management, enterprise architecture, and workforce development. She is currently acting as the ATO Executive Advisor on Cybersecurity.

In June 2023, Ms. Holemans returned from a 6-month detail supporting the US Space Force Cyber & Spectrum Operations Command at the Pentagon.