Episode 358 Deep Dive: Lisa Black | How Leaders Survive Major System Failures

In this episode, we sit down with Lisa Black, Director of Public Sector at Aeon Nexus Corporation, as she shares her perspectives on crisis leadership and organizational resilience when critical systems fail. Lisa draws from her extensive background leading government operations to highlight how real risk in a crisis is often less about technology and more about maintaining trust, clear communication, and effective decision-making under pressure. We explore the pitfalls of traditional and predictable crisis training, the importance of cross-training team members, and the value of embedding continuous improvement and consequence-based learning into daily operations. Lisa also discusses the crucial role of cadence in incident communications, the need to manage rumor mills and public scrutiny, consequences of over-reliance on technology, and why true collaboration between public and private sectors is essential to strengthen defenses against modern threats. Lisa Black is the Director of Public Sector at Aeon Nexus Corporation where she consults with government clients who are committed to enhancing justice through modernizing technology. Utilizing Aeon’s legal case management solution to deliver a single, secure, centralized, cloud-based system to public sector entities Lisa and her company work with public safety agencies, the offices of District Attorneys, Public Defenders, mediators and courts throughout the US. With over two decades of government experience, Lisa previously served as the Chief Deputy County Executive in Suffolk County, NY. There she managed the daily operations of a local government that served 1.5 million residents with a $4 Billion budget and a workforce of approximately 12,000 staff. Lisa has also held leadership roles with two NY State Senate Majority Leaders, two New York City Mayors and a NY Governor serving as Senior Advisor at the NYS Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services. Lisa’s advantage in serving in both republican and democratic governments has been instrumental in her ability to communicate across the aisle where she has been involved in crisis and emergency management for over half of her career. Formerly trained in emergency management and operational decision-making during crisis, Lisa has also earned certificates in Government Leadership and Cybersecurity Policy and Technology from the JFK School of Government at Harvard University Executive Education Program. Importantly, her skills and training helped her lead the Unified Command Incident Response to a 2022 countywide ransomware attack including incident identification, containment, eradication and operational recovery. She has spoken publicly about the experience at conferences and forums across the US including those with the NY State Association of Counties (NYSAC), the US Secret Service Cyber Fraud Task Force, NY State Local Government Information Technology Directors Association (NYSLGITDA), the National Federation of Municipal Analysts (NFMA), the International Association of Emergency Manager’s (IAEM) Region II Inaugural Conference, the National Association of Counties (NACo) Chief Information Officer Forum, the FBI & Fordham Law School’s International Cyber Security Summit and the 2020Partners Counterterrorism, Counter-Narcotics & Cyber Security Miami Conference.