Embrace Your Story, Build Your Community

Dr. Courtney Crosby is an artificial intelligence (AI) architect working in a highly specialized and increasingly mission-critical field: algorithmic warfare.

She brings a multifaceted background to this role, including a Ph.D. in decision sciences, work with special operations missions overseas, and experience integrating emerging technology into areas such as complex machine teaming and intelligence. 

Today she’s a leader on multiple fronts, bringing AI solutions to warfighters and the defense community and cultivating the next generation of tech leaders, most recently as a panelist for the Data Science Alliance’s “Way Forward for Women in Tech” event.

For Women’s History Month, Courtney shares her thoughts on embracing your unique story, prioritizing diverse perspectives, and more. 

To grow in your career, Courtney says, “You have to know who you are and what your story is.”

Her own story centers on solving impossible problems for no-fail missions and embracing a personal brand that’s evolved with her career and shaped her perspective along the way. From humanitarian work to doctoral studies in battlefield AI and multiple special operations contracts in between, Courtney realized, “I have these skills and experiences, and it’s my responsibility to share them with leadership.”

Good leaders recognize what they know and what they don’t. Courtney believes that when you’re part of a team, you have to find your voice and recognize where you’re uniquely positioned to contribute. She understands that developing a personal story or brand helps people evaluate projects and opportunities. It also provides guideposts for protecting your time, achieving balance, and staying on track as your career progresses.

“Defining your personal brand is more than saying you’re a machine learning engineer or you’re passionate about AI,” she says. Your personality traits, intersectionalities, lived experiences, and interests—all these parts form your identity as both an individual and talented professional. “So, ask yourself: ‘How do I want to show up at work and how do I play to those strengths?’” 

After you’ve identified what makes you unique, preserve it. Courtney believes that the background that makes you stand out is your best asset to ensure you’ll be aligned to work that you’re better suited to do than anyone else. “My own perspective sets me apart from other people in the field of algorithmic warfare,” Courtney explains. “I’ve garnered a lot of trust and reliability leveraging my perspective as a unique differentiator to the challenges I’m tasked with solving.”

In addition, it’s important to find an employer that embraces and values all the facets of what you have to offer. “At Booz Allen, I found a space where I can be the most authentic version of myself,” she says.

Such acceptance is part of the firm’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitment, according to Courtney. It’s also essential to the future of her field. “In AI we want to look at all the variables, ensuring it’s used to create a safer, more sustainable, and equitable future for all,” she says. This can’t be accomplished without a range of different perspectives. 

Another tip for building your career in tech? “Build an inner circle around you that affords you the freedom to speak your truth,” Courtney advises. 

Booz Allen provides continuous professional development and growth with technical, management, and leadership skills training and networking communities to help employees, like Courtney, build their careers.

Courtney has been contributing to these networking efforts. She recently launched a group for women in senior AI leadership to meet. Connecting with peers who understand your field and your day-to-day challenges and responsibilities is valuable, she says.

But job roles and technical specialties shouldn’t limit who you reach out to, learn from, and bring into your community. “Maybe it’s someone in film, or ethics, or a military leader who’s not in AI,” Courtney says. “Open the aperture so you’re in a better position to think holistically and creatively about the support systems you need to achieve your full potential.”