Andi Across EIS

Andrea “Andi” Fehl is the assistant product manager for Defensive Cyber Operations (DCO) Tools within PEO EIS’ Cyber Platforms and Systems (CPS) product office. Born and raised in the Army, Fehl lived overseas in Germany and Italy before establishing roots in the Washington, D.C. metro area. She’s worked at PEO EIS for over 10 years across several programs and commands an extensive knowledge of the history of the portfolio. She is a “have-car-will-travel” kind of adventurer, manages her own travel blog — Andi Across America — and is today’s #PEOEISTeammateTuesday.

Lt. Col. Bradley Son, Fehl’s supervisor, says, “Andi is a tremendous asset. When I came on board, she was the assistant product manager (APM) for our Forensics & Malware Analysis (F&MA) program of record. Her 'get-it-done' attitude, coupled with her dedication to get cyber defenders the capability they need to accomplish the mission, brought the program to greater lengths than experienced before. With recent transitions, she was the perfect candidate to take on the role as the APM for our DCO Tools Suite. We're looking forward to seeing the fruition of her hard work and getting ARCYBER [Army Cyber Command] the capability that they need to keep our Soldiers in the fight.”

Where are you originally from? And can you describe a time in your childhood that left an impression on you?

I’m actually an Army brat and grew up in Germany. I was born in an Army hospital at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and spent one year respectively at elementary schools at Fort Polk, Fort Ord and Fort Lewis, before landing in Ansbach, Germany where I lived until I was 21. My first two years of college were spent at the University of Maryland when they had a campus in Munich, Germany. Growing up overseas left a major impression on me.

I was born in an Army hospital and was an Army wife, so I've been around the Army all my life. Being an Army wife — especially overseas — makes it hard to have a career. At one point, we were stationed in Vicenza, Italy. I was working at the 509 Signal Battalion as their Family Readiness Support Assistant while also serving as a Family Readiness Group (FRG) Leader for Able Company, 173rd Airborne Brigade. The Soldiers from our community were very active in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Those are the families that I had the honor to support while serving as an FRG leader in Vicenza. 

What are some moments in life that led you to work for the Army and PEO EIS?

I started my life in D.C. as a civilian employee working as part of Gen. Dunwoody’s executive assistant team at Army Materiel Command on Fort Belvoir. A few months later, an opportunity presented itself for me to transition from being a civilian to a defense contractor. It was one I could not refuse as it provided a path for me to succeed professionally while offering better support for my daughter as a single mom. It felt like fate brought me to PEO EIS, and the path that I’ve been on continues to confirm my belief.

I've essentially “grown up” at EIS since 2009. I've worked at multiple program management (PM) shops across the organization in varying capacities that have added tools to my kit for success. I started as an executive assistant at Project Manager, Power Projection Enablers (P2E), worked in strategic communications and operations for the Product Manager of Enterprise Email (EE), served as a management analyst as part of the Army Human Resource Solutions (AHRS) Commander’s Critical Risk Reduction Dashboard (CRRD) initiative, and moved from there to managing multiple projects for the Home Station Mission Command Centers (HSMCC) effort at Installation Information Infrastructure Modernization Program (I3MP) before landing in my current role at Defensive Cyber Operations (DCO). Over time, these organizations have all grown and changed names. 

Can you describe what it's like to work for DCO Tools?

One of the things that is really cool for me is having grown up in this space and gone from being an executive assistant to a program coordinator to a project manager on the contractor side and such. I've worked in operations; I've worked in strategic communications; I've worked in all these different PM shops across EIS. So, coming over and becoming a government civilian at DCO is kind of like a culmination of those things. There are a lot of things I just intuitively know about PEO EIS because I've been here for so long, and I can apply all of that knowledge to the decisions that I make. The cyber front is the new front. Being a part of the DCO team puts me in a position to provide our cyber defenders with the tools they need to fight in that space. Having been an Army wife for a long time, with many friends who are like family across that Army family, it’s a personal mission for me to make sure I do as much as I can to set our Soldiers up for success. We’ve lost lots of friends in wars. Keeping those Soldiers at the front of all things I do is paramount to success. The Soldier at the end of the line is who I serve. I'm not just here as an acquisition professional. I'm here to take the red tape out of the way and deliver capabilities as quickly as possible, so our Army has what it needs to fight the bad guys in cyberspace.

How do you see DCO evolving over the next few years to help EIS and the Soldiers that the organization serves?

Where I'm at now is a very strategic position in that our Requirements Definition Package (RDP) allows us to work with the Regional Cyber Centers and with Army Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM) by bringing that Army perspective to the table. One of the things my dad — a retired sergeant major — taught me is it's not what you know, it's who you know. You have to know what you're doing, of course, but you have to know the people. With my position at DCO, I've built the relationships with ARCYBER, Army Capability Manager (ACM) – Cyber, and with NETCOM. We are now pulling all the stakeholders together and having valid conversations that we're acting on to deliver Army-wide solutions for Security Incident Event Management (SIEM), Security Orchestration and Automated Response (SOAR) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). We have an integrated product team for all of these different initiatives and are developing tools dashboards that can be used for enterprise DCO. Working together with people from all of those different agencies to bring a unified solution to the Army — and not just stovepipe solutions — is the future of DCO and our support to EIS and ultimately the Soldier. That's where I see DCO going with PEO EIS. We're looking to engage some of our sister PMs — like Global Enterprise Network Modernization – Americas and Global Enterprise Network Modernization – OCONUS, who are modernizing the network to see where we can find synergy across our missions. Why not have these conversations? They're the ones building out the network, and if we know we're going to need to put these tools into these spaces, why not bring more collaboration across the board?

What are some important factors of leadership you aim to practice that will help strengthen your team?

The most important thing is aligning the team so that we are all operating with the same mission in mind. I take the “one team, one fight” approach to working for the Army. I always try to empower people that I'm working with because I believe a hand up is better than a handout. I know that I've gotten here because I have mentors who have helped me along the way; I don't know everything myself. So, I go to people who have more experience, and I ask them for their opinion. That's the way I want to run the DCO Tools program.  If somebody on the team doesn't understand something, or they don't necessarily understand the mission, I can help them feel comfortable asking and learning about it. It's not necessarily about one tool or another tool — it's about how that tool plugs into the big Army picture. Understanding all of those moving parts will help the team understand that the work we do is critical to the Soldier at the end of the line. At the end of the day, it’s about protecting our nation and equipping our Soldiers with the best tools to succeed. There are lives on the line, no matter how you slice it. So, I want to make sure my team is all on the same page, and that we are all fighting the same fight to support the Army.

After a hard day of work, what are some hobbies that help you unwind?

Anybody that knows me knows I’m a travel person. I travel all over the place. I actually have a travel blog: Andi Across America. Remember, I grew up overseas, so I still consider myself new to America as an American. I’ll get in my little Mini Cooper convertible and just drive around and check things out. We're in a place where there's so much history. I love to go find things that are abandoned or things that are super historic, or things that are off the beaten path and very American. It's like, “Wow, that's so weird but so cool at the same time.” 

Is there any advice you'd like to share with your colleagues?

Lead by example. Be transparent. Know that the truth is your best weapon. Remember where you came from and do what you can to help others succeed. That's the kind of space I live in.