Sarah Cuellar

Sarah Cuellar serves as the Deputy Director of the EnergyPortfolio for Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) located in Mountain View, California. As the Deputy Director, she currently oversees over 25 energy projects and $383 million in project funding. She also serves as the Combatant Command Embed to United States Southern Command. Prior to her role at DIU, she was employed by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Liaison Officer (GS15) for United States Southern Command. As a Liaison Officer, she oversaw eight Joint Capabilities Technology Demonstrations (JCTD), two Rapid Innovation Fund (RIF), one Rapid Reaction Technology Office (RRTO), and one Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) valued at over 175 million dollars. From 2012- 2018, Ms. Cuellar worked as a Senior Public Private Partnerships Coordinator, she created and sustained strategic relationships with local in-country non-governmental organizations (NGOs), businesses and academic institutions in over 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Ms. Cuellar was selected to serve as an advisor to the Commander’s Action Group to attain key partnerships with academia, service academies and think tanks. Prior to her role in the J9, she was the Civil Affairs Operations Noncommissioned Officer in charge at United States Southern Command. Her duties in this capacity included coordinating and overseeing all Reserve General Purpose Joint Civil Affairs forces deployed in the western hemisphere. Ms. Cuellar retired from the US Army Reserve in 2024 after twenty years of serving her country as a Human Intelligence Collector/Interrogator. Before her career at the United States Southern Command, she was a Commercial Real Estate Broker for Bayview Financial in Coral Gables, Florida. She has a master’s degree from Florida International University in Global Risks and Political Affairs and currently resides in Florida with her family.