She Spent 23 Years Keeping Secrets. Then They Put Her in Front of the Press.

Meredith Cavan started her career as an imagery analyst, hunting for the one detail in a photograph that changed the whole picture. Twenty-three years later she walked out of CIA as the Agency’s Deputy Director of Public Affairs, the officer responsible for telling the truth on behalf of an institution built to keep secrets.

Along the way she ran the Agency’s intelligence mission across more than 30 countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania, advised MARSOC and US Pacific Command, and briefed presidents, members of Congress, and foreign heads of state. She now runs Brightchord Strategies, teaches intelligence and national security at William & Mary, and sits on the Advisory Council of the International Spy Museum.

She also founded a DC Irish folk band called Celtic Underground and just released their first album.

We covered the whole run: the analysis, the travel, the countries, the calls she had to make when a story was breaking and staying quiet was not an option. And why she says the best seat in the band is second fiddle.

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