Leadership

Dr. Joye Purser

Dr. Joye Purser is Chief Executive Officer and Founder of East by South.  She has 30 years of experience in high-stakes and results-focused positions, both in the public and private sectors. Her strengths are communication, strategy, and driving results.

Most recently, Dr. Purser led the eight-state southeastern region as the first-ever Regional Director for the Department of Homeland Security - Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (DHS/ CISA). In this role she engaged closely with chief information security officers (CISOs) at Fortune 100 companies in the southeast, understanding their concerns and sharing the federal government’s vision for tighter partnerships, even as the threats of ransomware and cyber attacks grew exponentially. She understands how public sector entities such as DHS, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and state/ local governments interact with the private sector in a concerted effort to combat an ever-shifting cyber and physical threat landscape.

Guiding clients toward more effective business operations was a focus during her time at a global management consulting firm, where she had profit-and-loss as well as business development accountability. Dr. Purser worked with the nation’s third-largest county to prioritize expenditure of over $400 million in pandemic relief funds; she helped a large federal agency rapidly refresh its business continuity plans; and she facilitated enterprise risk management discussions with a client with more than 21,000 full time employees. She has worked as a technical writer, an advocacy nonprofit coordinator, and a national presidential campaign operative.

Dr. Purser has extensive experience in technology policy and government. Serving the public for nearly 20 years in Washington, she led data management operations and budget analysis within the Department of Defense for the Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (OSD/CAPE). She specialized in data acquisition, analysis, and governance; federal budget planning and execution; medical information technology; and chemical and biological defense program evaluation.

In 2018 Dr. Purser was selected to serve in the White House at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), where she was responsible for ensuring alignment of the $95 billion defense research budget with presidential policy priorities. While at OMB, she worked to synchronize multiple federal agencies and programs on issues relating to semiconductors and supply chain policy, working closely with public and private partners as well as key legislative staff.

Earlier in her career, Dr. Purser worked on Capitol Hill for seven years as a legislative staffer, supporting two different members of Congress on the House Science Committee. There, she drafted a bill augmenting the inclusion of women and minorities in areas where they currently are underrepresented. She arranged town hall events to educate constituents on a new prescription drug law and contributed to the drafting of the Affordable Care Act.

A graduate of the University of Texas and Georgia Tech, Dr. Purser has a technical background as an accomplished researcher. Her first scientific publication has been cited more than 400 times. She resides in Atlanta with her spouse and children.