Bess Dopkeen

Bess Dopkeen is the founder of Keen Edge Strategies, LLC, where she draws on over two decades of defense experience to advise small and nontraditional companies on navigating the Department of Defense to deliver innovative capabilities. Most recently, she served as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (R&E), where she championed policy, issues, and programs spanning from basic research through prototyping and transition, oversaw engagement with the House and Senate Defense committees across R&E's $5 billion investment portfolio, and spearheaded initiatives including the Office of Strategic Capital and the APFIT program, which delivered almost $600 million in procurement to 46 small and nontraditional businesses in its first few years. Prior to that role, she served as a Professional Staff Member on the House Armed Services Committee, where she was the majority lead for the Science and Technology and Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction portfolios. Before the Hill, Bess was a senior analyst and program manager in the Office of the Secretary of Defense's Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office, led the Defense Innovation Board's Software Acquisition study, and worked in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics.