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Sandy Finan
Advisor
Sandy Finan
Advisor
Biography
Major General (U.S. Air Force, Retired) Sandy Finan owes her career in nuclear operations, space systems, cyber operations and executive level policy making to her inability to play the clarinet. Sort of.
In the early 1980s, Finan, with a bachelor’s degree in music education, taught three years in California public schools. She took a break to learn how to program computers. Along the way, the California Air National Guard Band asked her to join. Turned out the band didn’t need Finan’s instrument, a trumpet, but needed a clarinet.
“That wasn’t going to work,” Finan said. “But a smart recruiter asked me to take a placement test. When those results came back, I had a much wider range of choices in the Guard than just the band.”
She entered the Air National Guard in 1982 as an enlisted cryptographic equipment repairperson. She received her Air Force commission in 1985 as a distinguished graduate through Officer Training School. Ultimately, Finan served nearly 35 years in the Air Force before retiring in 2017, having completed three graduate degree programs.
She has commanded at the squadron, wing, and center levels, and has deployed to Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom as the Director of Space Forces. In her final assignment, she served as the Department of Defense Deputy Chief Information Officer for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Information Infrastructure, where she set strategy and policies for design, architecture, security, cybersecurity, interoperability, and sustainment of critical communications capabilities.
She joined PNNL in May 2019 as a strategic advisor, focusing primarily on the laboratory’s Department of Defense-related work. In addition, Finan continues to advise the United States Strategic Command and mentor Air Force Nuclear Courses.