Brandeanna Allen

Dr. Brandeanna Allen is a Deputy Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) at the Pentagon. CAPE provides independent analytic support to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense on strategic force structure and resource allocation decisions. As a Deputy Director, Dr. Allen leads CAPE’s Capability Enablers Deputate, which conducts decision support analysis on a wide range of defense capabilities, such as space, cyber, nuclear, missile defense, science and technology, data, communications, and military and civilian personnel. Before assuming the Deputy Director role, Dr. Allen was the Director of the Economic and Manpower Analysis Division within the Capability Enablers Deputate, which was the same division where she served as an operations research analyst for the first five years of her national security career. Dr. Allen became a senior executive in 2020 when she was selected to be the Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (USD(A&S)). As the senior advisor to the Under Secretary, she was responsible for supporting the establishment of departmental policy for a $235 billion annual portfolio comprised of all major defense acquisition programs, installations, and the defense industrial base, as well as ensuring 47,000 personnel in the OUSD(A&S) enterprise implemented DoD policies and USD direction during complex periods, such as a presidential transition and global pandemic. She also served as a special assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, where she advised on all major funding decisions for the 2021–2025 Future Years Defense Program. Dr. Allen’s experience also includes serving as a senior operations research analyst in CAPE’s Naval Forces Division, a special assistant to the Director of CAPE, and a legislative fellow on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She has a Ph.D. in economics from Middle Tennessee State University and has completed fellowships with the Brookings Institution and the American Institute for Economic Research. She is a recipient of the Secretary of Defense medal for Meritorious Civilian Service and three OSD medals for Exceptional Civilian Service.