BAA Honors Recipient: Dr. Lenora Peters Gant
During the Black Policy conference weekend, the HKS Black Alumni Association (BAA) recognized Dr. Lenora Peters Gant with the first HKS BAA Honor.
Dr. Lenora Peters Gant made extraordinary contributions to our nation and the global community as a Senior Leader and National Security Executive in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Her leadership as a tactical, strategic and tireless leader has led to major diversification of the workforce in the Intelligence Community (IC) over the past twenty years.
Her extraordinary acquisition of congressional authorized budgets for more than $20M per year over a 10 years period beginning in Fall 2004 began this enormous contribution. Through competitive solicitations or Broad Agency Announcements (BAA), over thirty American universities benefited from grants up to $2.5 Million each over a five-year period including 25% Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). By using a collaborative framework with partners across the seventeen (17) IC agencies, she was able to build, identify, cultivate and hire America’s best and brightest talent. Dr. Gant oversaw these multi-million dollar budget and mentored literally thousands of students prior to them becoming IC employees via her " brain child" which she created and established in Fiscal Year 2005 (October 2004 – September 2005). Her brain child was called the Intelligence Community Centers for Academic Excellence (ICCAE) Programs in National Security Studies, sponsored by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). The ICCAE program was heralded as the “crown jewel” of federal grant programs by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) for the accountability via documented annual measures and metrics.
Dr. Gant, personally, defended resource requirements on Capitol Hill for the IC CAE Program and briefed the HPSCI. The ICCAE program as conceived was one of the most diversified nationally funded programs that included a diverse cohort of academic universities as well as students from all sectors of America. In fact, this program mirrored the American quilt with its broad representation of under-represented minorities, ethnic groups, women and men who knew little about this rather "exclusive club" of America’s National Security apparatus that is comprised of 17 National Intelligence agencies and components, including the Department of Defense. In the face of the changing demographics of America, inclusiveness now is an imperative rather than a choice via Dr. Gant’s foresight and deliberate strategies to sustain the ICCAE Program over many years to diversify America’s National Security and power structure, 2004 to present. The vision of what we now called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) was timely and a much needed view of how DEI should be envisioned.
Dr. Gant served on the Kennedy School Board for approximately 5 years; 2005 – 2011 where she created the first “Speed Mentoring” endeavor that the Board engaged during each of our bi-annual meetings. Moreover, she has been active in supporting the Kennedy School DC Alumni Networking Nite in our Nation’s Capital for many years. Further, she was one the key organizers for the National Security panel and discussion during the Alumni Networking events. In regard to the IC CAE Program, Dr. Gant assembled representatives from more than 35 universities which included major research universities, private colleges and universities both large and small and ethically-diverse institutions to help shape the National Security workforce to mirror the demographic composition of our grateful nation.
After completing more than 40 years of public service in several national security federal agencies, Dr. Gant continued her work as a senior professional in the School of Business at Howard University. Dr. Gant came to Howard University in 2018 and immediately began to demonstrate her leadership skills and acumen by offering to Howard students a seminar in leadership for senior level undergraduate students and those in the MBA program. Dr. Gant also was a member of the senior personnel for a grant from the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) entitled Howard University Partnership Design and Development (HUPDD) Program. This program provided proposal development support and offered opportunities for partnerships among the 13 HBCUs in the Mid-Atlantic Region with small technology companies. This grant enabled a number of opportunities for faculty and small business owners to come together and collaborate on research initiatives. One of the highlights of this year-long grant was the opportunity that the National Security Agency allowed faculty from these 13 HBCUs to present their research ideas to the “hard problem sets” on focused topics including cybersecurity, Internet of Things, Image Analysis, predictive analytics, data science and artificial intelligence/ machine learning. Based on this work, several of these ideas were funded by the NSA and other people with the proposal development support offered by the HUPDD received funding form the Department of Education, NSF, and several other DOD agencies. Dr. Gant was the primary organizer of this NSA event.
Dr. Gant’s talents and her innovative approaches to serve our nation and especially minoritized communities are rare and exceptional. She has an extraordinary commitment to improve the human conditions of her colleagues, students and the level of participation in and across America’s National Security Enterprise.