CIA hires 'Chief Wellbeing Officer' for first time ever

Last month, the Central Intelligence Agency hired a top executive from Johnson and Johnson, Jennifer Posa, to be the agency's first ever Chief Wellbeing Officer, a role they describe as expanding the "CIA’s efforts to support its workforce’s health and wellbeing."

According to a CIA press release, "Dr. Posa will strengthen CIA’s strategy to promote officers’ wellbeing, a key priority for CIA’s leaders, especially given the burdens placed on CIA’s workforce in the two decades following 9/11 and the recent pandemic."

According to Posa's Linkedin, her last job was as the Global Head of Employee Mental Wellbeing and Workplace Effectiveness at Johnson & Johnson, the company that manufactures one of the Covid vaccines. Prior to her job as Global Head, she worked at J&J as the Health Care Quality Director in the Neuroscience and Infectious Disease Department, and before that, she served as Strategic Market Director. She worked at the Mayo Clinic for 17 years before working for J&J.

The Director of the CIA, William Burns, said, "Building a healthy and resilient workforce is one of my most profound responsibilities. It is absolutely critical to our success as an agency. That’s why I’m delighted that Dr. Posa has joined our team and will bring her unique set of experiences and skills to this crucial role."

"I am honored to join CIA in this role and excited to work with officers throughout the agency to advance our commitment to wellbeing to further support our geographically diverse workforce as they carry out our important mission," Posa said of her new position.

The press release from the CIA says her tasks include finding more ways for CIA officers to "practice health and wellbeing activities during the work day."

She's also tasked with "providing additional mental health resources to officers and their family members; increasing access to childcare subsidies; and identifying additional flexible work options for officers."

The Federal New Network reports that Burns has cited 9/11 and Covid before as reasons his CIA needs more mental health treatment. Speaking to Georgia Tech on April 14 he said, "The pressures and strains faced by officers and their families are unrelenting, with two decades shaped by counterterrorism threats followed by two years of Covid."

"Some of our officers and family members have also had to deal with anomalous health incidents, where we’ve made significant progress on medical care, but still have work to do in our government-wide investigation into the cause of a choice and a number of discrete cases," Burns added.