The Psychology of Espionage and Leaking

On Tuesday, March 29, 2022, the University of Texas at Austin’s Intelligence Studies Project, Strauss Center for International Security and Law, and Clements Center for National Security hosted Dr. Ursula M. Wilder, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Psychologist, for a talk on “The Psychology of Espionage and Leaking.” The talk was moderated by Dr. Bianca Adair, UT-Austin’s CIA Resident Intelligence Officer. 

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Ursula M. Wilder is a clinical psychologist who to date served at the CIA for 25 years in medical, operational, and analytic functions. Key assignments have included CIA’s Counterintelligence Center, Counterterrorism Center, the National Counterterrorism Center, CIA’s Sherman Kent School of Intelligence Analysis, and a CIA medical and psychological unit in the Directorate of Analysis. Dr. Wilder was a Federal Executive Fellow at the Brookings Institution (2012-2013) where she studied counterterrorism psychology and was recently awarded a Deputy Director of CIA Fellowship to study neuroscience and cyberpsychology, housed in CIA’s Center for the Study of Intelligence. Dr. Wilder was the first woman psychologist promoted to the Senior Intelligence Service at CIA and was awarded the George H.W. Bush Award for Excellence in Counterterrorism for her work in operations and the Sherman Kent Award for her contributions to the academic literature and scholarship on intelligence.