Drenan Dudley

Drenan Dudley currently serves as the Director for Long-Term Community Recovery and Rebuilding in the White House. In this role, she works with Federal agencies and the private sector to support the needs of communities during complex incident recovery efforts across the country and to shepherd systemic improvements to the Nation’s disaster recovery efforts. From August 2022 through June 2024 Drenan served as Deputy National Cyber Director for Strategy and Budget in the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) in the White House. In this role she worked to establish strategy and budget priorities on cybersecurity issues and lead engagement on these matters with White House and interagency counterparts. Drenan served as Acting National Cyber Director in November and December 2023. She began work at ONCD as the Assistant National Cyber Director for Budget Review and Assessment where she identified obstacles to meeting resourcing needs, planned for future cyber resources, and assessed the performance of cyber programs in achieving their intended effect. Her work at ONCD is done in partnership with the Office of Management and Budget and Executive Office of the President Councils, as well as federal, state, local, tribal and territorial partners and the private sector. Prior to her position in the Executive Office of the President, Drenan was professional staff to the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee from 2005 to 2021. She had appropriations and oversight responsibilities for over $25 billion in annual Department of Homeland Security programs and over $196 billion in supplemental appropriations to respond to emergencies and disasters in the United States. Federal agencies in her portfolio included the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the U.S. Secret Service, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers, the Federal Protective Service, the Office of Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction, Intelligence and Analysis, and Departmental Management. During the 115th Congress, Drenan was named a Stennis Congressional Fellow a program which focuses on future challenges to Congress as an institution of American democracy and the leadership role played by senior congressional staff in meeting those challenges. Drenan earned a Master’s Degree in Public Administration with a concentration in budget, finance, and local government from the University of Georgia and an undergraduate degree in English and Political Science from the University of South Carolina. Drenan was raised in Blacksburg, Virginia.