Employee Spotlight
Pam Malo
Facilities Security Officer (FSO), Catapult Headquarters
Pam Malo Strengthens Security for Catapult and Customers
Security is of critical importance to government agencies. That’s why Pam Malo is instrumental to Catapult’s operations.
As Facilities Security Officer (FSO), Pam maintains Catapult’s Facility Clearance and processes security clearances for employees to ensure that the company has cleared staff to work on classified contracts. There are three levels: Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret.
Potential employees go through an investigative process for clearance. Pam performs security briefings and indoctrinates individuals under the level for which they are needed. She also ensures that individuals complete their applications, get fingerprinted, and process all their paperwork.
When Catapult is not in the midst of a project competition, Pam handles day-to-day maintenance. If an individual already holds a clearance, Pam verifies that it is still valid. “I’ll run periodic reinvestigations on individuals,” says Pam. Some have to be reinvestigated every five years; those who are at the Secret level must be reinvestigated every ten years.
“Often before a person can visit a classified site, they have to have a visit access request, so I create those as well,” she adds. “We also have contracts which require special access; for those projects, people have to go through an additional investigation that shows they’re suited to work in that environment.”
Pam joined Catapult in 2005. For the first four months, she studied for required certificates to work in the Industry Security Program. She also attended a program in FSO management at Defense Security Services (DSS), the agency responsible for the National Industry Security Program (NISP). Pam continues her professional development by studying for the Industrial Security Program (ISP), an accreditation that is equivalent of a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.
It’s important to stay abreast of changes in the security realm as Catapult grows, says Pam. “When I came to Catapult, we had maybe 40 cleared employees. Now we’re close to 200.”
Pam lives in Centreville, VA with her husband Manuel and three sons: Alex, Colin, and Ethan, all athletes. “Every night of the week we have some kind of sporting event,” Pam says. “This career has been a great fit for me, because it allows me to make my family my focus.”
