CISA and OPM launch a $180 million federal cybersecurity workforce diversity initiative targeting underrepresented communities, community colleges, and historically black colleges and universities.
CISA and OPM jointly launched the Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Diversity Initiative, backed by $180 million in Congressional appropriations. The initiative targets underrepresented communities, community colleges, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities to build a more diverse federal cybersecurity pipeline.
The initiative includes $80 million in scholarship support for cybersecurity students at HBCUs and minority-serving institutions who commit to 2-year federal service agreements, $60 million in community college cybersecurity program development grants, and $40 million in online training scholarships for career changers.
The online training scholarship program supports completion of professional certificate programs aligned to NICE Framework work roles. GovAcademy's foundational cybersecurity courses — Critical Infrastructure Cyber Basics (GA-047), Secure Email and Phishing Defense (GA-041), and Data Classification and Handling (GA-033) — are included in the approved course list for scholarship redemption.
CISA Director Jen Easterly noted that the federal cybersecurity workforce is significantly less diverse than the overall federal workforce, with women representing only 24 percent and underrepresented minorities 18 percent of cybersecurity positions.
Research cited in the initiative's design documents finds that diverse cybersecurity teams are 30 percent more effective at identifying novel attack patterns than homogeneous teams.
GovAcademy has established a dedicated scholarship processing partnership with the initiative, enabling scholarship recipients to enroll directly through a streamlined portal. The academy is also developing Spanish-language versions of its foundational courses.
The initiative is expected to add approximately 2,400 new cybersecurity professionals to the federal workforce over five years, addressing a meaningful portion of the skills gap identified in the GAO's 2026 workforce assessment.