MITRE’s Christina Liaghati Named a 2025 Fed100 Honoree

McLean, Va., February. 17, 2025 – GovExec named Christina Liaghati, Ph.D., an AI expert and department manager at MITRE, to the 2025 Federal 100, an elite group of individuals from private industry, academia, and government who demonstrate how technology can be leveraged to enhance government services for citizens. Under Liaghati’s leadership, her team addresses the opportunities, risks, and vulnerabilities organizations face as they integrate artificial intelligence into their systems to enhance efficiency in support of the federal government’s mission.

“Christina has helped improve trust and security in AI adoption across government agencies, which will in turn create efficiencies in government services,” said Mark Peters, Ph.D., president and CEO, MITRE. “Congratulations to Christina and all Fed 100 honorees for their commitment to advancing government agency missions through technology innovation.” 

Liaghati leads a team of more than 50 scientists and engineers and co-founded and leads MITRE ATLAS™, a free and publicly available knowledge base that provides real-world insights into adversaries’ tactics and techniques used to attack AI-enabled systems. This suite of cross-government and industry community-driven capabilities helps defenders understand AI-specific threats and enhance the security and assurance of U.S. and allied AI supply chains. 

Many of the ATLAS capabilities have been developed in direct support of, and in collaboration with government agencies including the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Department of Defense and its Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, and other federal agencies.

Liaghati’s impact in 2024 includes leading AI security and assurance collaborations with more than 150 organizations across industry and government to create freely available MITRE ATLAS capabilities, including the recently launched AI Incident Sharing Initiative with MITRE’s Center for Threat-Informed Defense. She spearheaded the physical build-out of MITRE’s AI Assurance and Discovery Lab, which opened in March to measure and mitigate risks in government AI-enabled systems. She also contributed her expertise to AI-related cybersecurity efforts with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and its government and industry partners.

Liaghati is a dedicated proponent for strengthening the security and assurance of AI-enabled systems, particularly in government mission environments. Her leadership of MITRE ATLAS led to the knowledge base being highlighted in the December 2024 Bipartisan House Task Force Report on Artificial Intelligence, emphasizing the need for more research and testing to mitigate AI risks. The ATLAS capabilities have been described as the “de facto Rosetta Stone” for understanding AI security and earned a Global InfoSec Award in the Market Leader category in 2024.

A passionate advocate for women in AI and cybersecurity, Liaghati has inspired and mentored many, with a particular focus on providing opportunities for women around her to grow and inspire others in this fast-moving AI security and assurance space. She was named one of SC Media’s “Women to Watch in IT Security” in 2023 and helped judge the 2024 candidates.

Liaghati earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and a doctorate in systems engineering from George Washington University.

GovExec will honor the Federal 100 award winners at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on April 3, 2025. This is the fifth consecutive year that a MITRE honoree has been named to the Federal 100.

About MITRE

MITRE’s mission-driven teams are dedicated to solving problems for a safer world. Through our public-private partnerships and federally funded R&D centers, we work across government and in partnership with industry to tackle challenges to the safety, stability, and well-being of our nation.

Media Contact: Jeremy Singer, media@mitre.org