Director, Defense Suicide Prevention Office
Ms. Heidi Boyd is the Acting Director of the Defense Suicide Prevention Office in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. In this position, she is responsible for policy, oversight, and advocacy of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) suicide prevention programs, which include suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention efforts including policy, program development and evaluation, data surveillance, research, and outreach and engagement in support of more than 2M Service members and over 2.5M military family members worldwide. Prior to this role, Ms. Boyd has served the military community in a number of roles including Chief of Staff of the Department of Defense (DoD) Personnel Analytic Center (DPAC).
Ms. Boyd brings more than 30 years of leadership experience in building successful teams in the areas of policy analysis, project execution, and program and fiscal management. As an active advocate for military community services, her efforts enhanced the operational effectiveness and efficiency of diverse programs supporting DoD.
Prior to her role as the Chief of Staff, she was the Director of Family and Employer Programs and Policy (FEPP), within the Defense Human Resources Activity where she was responsible for developing and promoting programs and policies that addressed all family and employer issues for members of the National Guard and Reserve.
Previously, Ms. Boyd served as the DoD’s policy proponent for identification cards and entitlements and benefits to all military members (active, guard and reserve), their families and all other eligible individuals worldwide. In this role, she developed and coordinated distinct policy to transition for DoD’s first ever Common Access Card (CAC) program. Policy included the CAC life cycle: sponsorship and eligibility, registration & enrollment, background investigations, identity & eligibility, issuance, use & maintenance, and retrieval & revocation.
She also assisted in policy development for a variety of programs that affected benefits to the department’s military members, their families and other eligible individuals.
Ms. Boyd has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, a Master of Science in Public Policy (MPP), and is currently working on a Masters in Social Work (MSW).
She currently resides in the Washington D.C. metro area with her husband and has four adult children and two grandchildren. Her hobbies include knitting, traveling, being with family and making new friends.