PRINCIPAL
DELOITTE CONSULTING
Heather Reilly is a principal in Deloitte’s Government and Public Services business. She has more than 20 years of professional experience and currently serves as the leader of Deloitte’s Defense, Security & Justice Practice. Heather was elected to Deloitte’s Board Council and currently serves on the Governance Committee. She is one of the firm’s experts on immigration and border security work and previously has served clients for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). In this capacity, she led delivery teams focused on enhancing border security, facilitating trade and travel, and improving lawful immigration to the United States through improved technology, processes, and strategy.
Heather is the co-founder of Deloitte’s Immigration Community of Interest Network (iCOIN), and Refugee Community of Interest (RCOI) designed to establish Deloitte as a leading advisor for forced migration communities, offering smart resettlement solutions across the refugee lifecycle for governments, NGOS, and companies. Together, these groups support various pro bono and eminence efforts in the immigration space with refugee resettlement and advocacy organizations providing services to include tech implementation, business process reengineering, strategic planning, and performance management. The solutions and eminence developed under these efforts, include “A new home at work: An employer’s guide to fostering inclusion for refugees in the workplace,” and “Smart Refugee Resettlement: using technology to transform the resettlement process,” that have strengthened Deloitte’s brand in the immigration ecosystem and have been leveraged by firm leadership to exemplify Deloitte’s commitment to support these vulnerable populations. She serves as an advisor on the potential impact of immigration reform and other immigration related policies.
Heather’s passion for immigration was inspired by her Dad, a doctor in his home country of Iran who came to the US with less than $50 in his pocket and worked his way up from being a busboy to living the American dream. Years later, while volunteering in a local homeless shelter, Heather met a refugee from the Republic of Congo, a single mom of three children, and after hearing the story of trauma, war and rape that she faced in her home country, it sparked a need for Heather to not only help this specific family be successful in the U.S., but focus on finding ways to help other refugees.
Heather holds an MBA from the University of Maryland and a B.A. from Loyola University in Maryland. She resides in Northern Virginia with her husband and their two children.