Laquitta Lastrape is an accomplished cybersecurity executive with more than two decades of experience designing, implementing, and securing complex systems for the Department of Defense, federal agencies, and enterprise organizations. She brings an exceptional blend of technical expertise, strategic vision, and leadership that has positioned her as a trusted advisor in cloud security, governance, risk management, and compliance. Her career began in the United States Air Force, where she served ten years in Cyber Surety, providing hands-on management of classified networks, COMSEC encryption, vulnerability patching, and network defense operations. This foundational experience instilled a mission-first mindset and a deep understanding of protecting sensitive information in high-stakes environments.

Over the years, Laquitta has held critical roles with leading organizations, including Accenture, Booz Allen Hamilton, ManTech International, Chenega, General Dynamics Information Technology, and Leidos. Across these organizations, Laquitta spearheaded initiatives to modernize legacy systems, implement Zero Trust architectures, and oversee enterprise level Assessment & Authorization packages for mission-critical programs. She oversaw legacy system modernization projects, Zero Trust architecture implementation, and enterprise-level Assessment & Authorization (A&A) packages. She authored and authorized hundreds of compliance artifacts, created risk management roadmaps, and led cross-functional teams through all seven steps of the RMF process—planning, categorization, control selection, implementation, assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring.

Her expertise spans compliance frameworks such as CMMC, FedRAMP, HIPAA, GDPR, ISO, SOC 2, FISMA, and NIST. Laquitta has conducted extensive vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and security hardening across both cloud and on-premises environments. She is also highly skilled in evaluating and deploying leading-edge security tools, with hands-on experience in AWS, Azure, Docker, Kubernetes, Splunk, Tenable, CyberArk, ServiceNow, Okta, VMware, and more.Equally adept at strategy and execution, Laquitta has developed white papers, roadmaps, and solution documents that shape long-term cybersecurity strategies for multi-branch military operations and defense contractors. She has supported flagship programs such as the Air Force Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), ensuring mission success through secure cloud integration and cross-domain solutions. Her ability to translate technical requirements into actionable policies and communicate effectively with executives, engineers, and stakeholders alike underscores her strength as both a leader and collaborator…Read More