2017 National Leadership Training

Cynthia Vitters
former Chief Risk Officer
Department of Education’s (US-ED) Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA)


Cynthia Jasper Vitters is the former Chief Risk Officer of the Reporting Division in the Risk Management Office of the Department of Education’s (US-ED) Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA). She joined the Risk Management group in January 2006 to establish what is believed to be the first formally recognized enterprise risk management program in the Federal government. Cynthia has over 19 years of experience with the Federal government. Her areas of expertise include enterprise risk management, performance audits of education programs and operations, compliance audits, and the administration of the FSA programs. Prior to joining FSA, Cynthia spent eight years with the US-ED Office of Inspector General managing internal performance audits of multi-billion dollar federally funded education programs and audits of colleges’ and universities’ administration of Title IV programs. Cynthia also spent several years with US-ED’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer where she focused on projects aimed at government re-engineering. Cynthia earned her B.A. in Government from Franklin & Marshall College and M.B.A with a concentration in Accounting from Georgia State University. She is also a graduate of the Senior Executive Fellows Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She speaks regularly on the topic of ERM implementation in the federal government and co-authored a chapter of the book, “Managing Risk In Government: A Guide for Government Decision Makers.”

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