John O'Connor

At Johns Hopkins, John “Jack” O’Connor is the Program Director and a senior lecturer for the MS in Geospatial Intelligence program.

O’Connor has practiced, led, taught, and written about geospatial intelligence. A former CIA officer, he managed and led analytic and support organizations focused on combat support, national intelligence, diplomatic initiatives, and disaster support missions, as well as regional, functional, environmental, economic, and social analysis in the CIA’s National Photographic Interpretation Center, and, in the Defense Department, in the National Imagery and Mapping Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. A retired senior executive, he has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the Intelligence Community’s Galileo Award and the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement.

A reflective practitioner of GEOINT, O’Connor designed a course for reviewing analytic products in the 1980s and helped design a workshop on Managing GEOINT Analysis in NGA in 2010. He served as managing editor for a classified journal on Geospatial Analysis from 2009-2011 and remains on its board. His first publication on GEOINT in combat support was in 2004, and after retirement, he wrote a book in 2015 on the imagery analysis organization that shaped U.S. decisions throughout the Cold War.

O’Connor has an AA from Delaware County Community College, an AB from St. Joseph’s University, and an MA from Bryn Mawr College. He also holds a certificate in Leadership and Executive Coaching from Georgetown, is a certified executive and leadership coach, and was an MIT Seminar XXI fellow in 2000-2001. He is a member of the U.S. Geospatial-Intelligence Foundation and the Medmenham Association. Along with writing, he coaches leaders in the Intelligence Community and the private sector and consults.

Featured Works

• “NPIC: Seeing the Secrets and Growing the Leaders: A Cultural History of the National Photographic Interpretation Center,” Jack O’Connor, Acumensa Solutions, 2015