Carmen, a retired Senior Federal Executive with 32 years’ experience in the Intelligence Community, is a recognized national and international expert on intelligence analysis, strategic thinking, diversity of thought, and innovation and intrapreneurs in the public sector. She is the co-author of the book: Rebels at Work: A Handbook for Leading Change from Within. Her story as a change agent at CIA is featured in Wharton School professor Adam Grant's bestseller Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World.
Carmen is an in-demand expert on critical thinking, diversity of thought, and intrapreneurship, speaking to Fortune 500 companies, major non-profits, and governments. Most recently she spoke at South by Southwest 2022 on Precognition and Intelligence analysis. She also spoke at SXSW2019 and TEDxMidAtlantic on Surviving as a Change Agent, at SXSW2018 on avoiding the Mediocrity Trap, and on Critical Thinking at SXSW 2017. She has shared her ideas on change management and analytic thinking at Fortune 500 companies, government agencies in the US, Canada, and Europe, and non-profit organizations.
From 2005-2007 Carmen was part of the executive team that led the CIA's Analysis Directorate. She was a leader on diversity issues at the CIA, serving on equity boards at all organizational levels and across Directorates. She was the first CIA executive to conceptualize many IT applications now used by analysts, including blogs, online production, and collaborative tools; she personally gave the approval for Intellipedia. As a senior executive, Carmen in 2005 began using social networking and blogs to reach her diverse workforce. in her last assignment before retiring she oversaw the CIA's Lessons Learned program. She is the recipient of the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal.
Carmen describes herself as Puerto Rican by birth and Texan by nationality. She likes to garden and cook things that she has grown. She is currently active in mentoring women in the national security field as a founding member of Amazing Women in the Intelligence Community, and serves on the boards of the National Intelligence University and the National Security Institute.