Gagen MacDonald Appoints Tirzah VanDamme as Senior Director, AI & Digital Transformation

CHICAGO — July 21, 2026 — Tirzah VanDamme has joined Gagen MacDonald, an APCO company and leading business transformation, employee engagement and leadership advisory firm, as senior director on the AI & Digital Transformation team, Gagen MacDonald Global President Hillary Goodman announced today.

VanDamme brings more than 20 years of experience across defense, federal and global institutions. She brings a broad foundation spanning West Point engineering, neuroscience research and enterprise AI at a global scale, translating complex technical and policy challenges into operational outcomes. She has educated 10,000+ professionals and leaders across the United Nations, World Bank and the U.S. Department of Defense, built and scaled organizations from inception and driven AI adoption in some of the most compliance-intensive environments across the world.

In her role at Gagen MacDonald, VanDamme will lead AI adoption and digital transformation initiatives for clients, helping organizations move from experimentation to responsible adoption at scale. Her work will focus on aligning leadership, workflows, governance, communications and culture to ensure AI creates measurable business value.

“Tirzah brings a distinct combination of enterprise AI expertise, organizational transformation experience and leadership across global institutions, technology organizations and the military,” said Goodman. “As AI becomes embedded in how work gets done, organizations need leaders who can help redesign work, build organizational capability and prepare people for new ways of operating. Tirzah’s experience helping organizations navigate complex change makes her uniquely positioned to help our clients realize the full value of AI.”

Prior to joining Gagen MacDonald, VanDamme held leadership positions at Microsoft, where she advised federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, global institutions and enterprise clients on AI strategy, adoption and transformation. During her tenure, she helped advance AI adoption across complex, compliance-intensive environments, delivered AI strategy education to thousands of senior leaders and helped organizations translate technology investments into measurable business outcomes.

“Organizations are navigating significant opportunities and challenges as AI reshapes how work gets done,” said VanDamme. “The question is no longer simply which tool to deploy. It is how work should change, where AI creates value and where human judgement and accountability must remain. Organizations do not change unless people do. Successful transformation requires putting people at the center, building clear governance and using technology to strengthen human capability. I’m excited to join Gagen MacDonald and help turn AI’s potential into responsible, lasting value.”

VanDamme also brings significant leadership experience from the U.S. Army and Army Reserve, where she served in operational, planning and command roles spanning aviation, special operations and technology-focused organizations. At the Army Software Factory, VanDamme served as deputy director and helped build and scale the organization from its inception, supporting technology modernization, talent development and organizational growth.

A data and AI strategist, executive educator and transformation leader, VanDamme has advised organizations across the public, private and nonprofit sectors on navigating technological change and driving innovation. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Master of Science in Neuroscience from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Management from the United States Military Academy at West Point.