Beth Roberts is a foreign policy, international trade, and development finance leader with nearly two decades of experience navigating complex geopolitical, regulatory, and investment environments to foster economic growth. In her current role as Senior Manager, Global Strategic Initiatives within Global Public Policy at General Motors, Beth focuses on advancing policies that bolster GM’s supply chain resilience efforts. She specializes in translating big-picture global dynamics into actionable strategies, detailed project management, and diplomatic advocacy to advance policy objectives and drive growth.
During the Biden Administration, Beth served as Vice President of the Office of Foreign Policy at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), where she launched and led a team of regional and sector policy experts focused on aligning DFC’s $50 billion global investment portfolio and business development strategy with U.S. foreign policy priorities. She served as the senior foreign policy advisor to DFC’s CEO, drove strategic diplomatic engagement, and helped integrate geopolitical risk and opportunity analysis across business lines.
Before joining DFC, Beth spent a decade at the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), where she developed and managed infrastructure, energy, and agribusiness projects across Africa and South Asia. She also served as an advisor to MCC’s CEO, launched MCC’s Private Sector Advisory Council and led the Corporation’s first trade mission to Africa. Beth’s career began as a public affairs consultant at APCO, supporting domestic and global health care clients. Her service in the Peace Corps in Mali sparked her passion for working at the nexus global business, foreign policy, and sustainable development.
Beth is a graduate of Elon University and is a Truman National Security Project Security Fellow. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Washington, D.C.
Beth Roberts is a foreign policy, international trade, and development finance leader with nearly two decades of experience navigating complex geopolitical, regulatory, and investment environments to foster economic growth. In her current role as Senior Manager, Global Strategic Initiatives within Global Public Policy at General Motors, Beth focuses on advancing policies that bolster GM’s supply chain resilience efforts. She specializes in translating big-picture global dynamics into actionable strategies, detailed project management, and diplomatic advocacy to advance policy objectives and drive growth.
During the Biden Administration, Beth served as Vice President of the Office of Foreign Policy at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), where she launched and led a team of regional and sector policy experts focused on aligning DFC’s $50 billion global investment portfolio and business development strategy with U.S. foreign policy priorities. She served as the senior foreign policy advisor to DFC’s CEO, drove strategic diplomatic engagement, and helped integrate geopolitical risk and opportunity analysis across business lines.
Before joining DFC, Beth spent a decade at the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), where she developed and managed infrastructure, energy, and agribusiness projects across Africa and South Asia. She also served as an advisor to MCC’s CEO, launched MCC’s Private Sector Advisory Council and led the Corporation’s first trade mission to Africa. Beth’s career began as a public affairs consultant at APCO, supporting domestic and global health care clients. Her service in the Peace Corps in Mali sparked her passion for working at the nexus global business, foreign policy, and sustainable development.
Beth is a graduate of Elon University and is a Truman National Security Project Security Fellow. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Washington, D.C.
Elizabeth K. Horst is a former career U.S. diplomat with more than 25 years of experience leading policy, people, and partnerships across Europe and South Asia. As Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, she served as the bureau’s chief operating officer—overseeing policy development, budgets, staffing, strategic communications and U.S. engagement with 13 countries and 20 posts. As the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Pakistan, she refocused the bilateral relationship on economic and security issues, and launched the U.S. – Pakistan Green Alliance to advance climate resilience, clean energy, and water security. She was also responsible for Public Diplomacy to the regional audience of almost 2 billion people from Astana to Colombo. She was nominated as U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka in 2024.
Her diplomatic career included leadership roles in Mission German as Minister Counselor for Public Diplomacy and in Tallinn, Estonia as Chargé d’Affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission, where she strengthened transatlantic security and economic cooperation. Her Washington postings focused on regional security, economic development and foreign assistance, and spearheading mentoring and leadership initiatives. Earlier assignments took her to Ukraine, Germany, Russia, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and Niger, where she began her public service as a Peace Corps volunteer, working on food security and community health.
She holds degrees from the University of Kansas and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and speaks German, Russian, French, and Hausa.
Deborah Rosenblum has spent over 35 years working in the national security and defense field. Most recently, she served, from 2021 to 2025, as the Senate confirmed Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs as well as the Acting Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. In these roles she was responsible for all matters pertaining to acquisition; contract administration; logistics and materiel readiness; installations and environment; operational energy; chemical, biological and nuclear defense; as well as the defense industrial base.
From 2009 through 2021, she served as Executive Vice President at The Nuclear Threat Initiative, a global nonprofit focused on reducing catastrophic risks. She also advised corporate clients as a Vice President at The Cohen Group, a global consulting firm, on business opportunities in the defense and homeland security markets. Deborah is currently serving as a Senior Consultant to a range of defense companies; non-profits as well as academia.
She was educated at Middlebury College as well as Columbia University.
Mary DeRosa is a Professor from Practice at Georgetown University Law Center, where she focuses on national security law. She is Director of Georgetown’s Global Law Scholars program and Co-Director of its Center on National Security and the Law.
Previously, Ms. DeRosa served as Deputy Assistant and Deputy Counsel to the President and National Security Council Legal Adviser in the Obama Administration. She has also served at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations as Alternate Representative of the United States to the 66th Session of the UN General Assembly, an ambassador-level position. Before the Obama Administration, Ms. DeRosa was Chief Counsel for National Security for the Senate Judiciary Committee, working for the Chairman, Senator Patrick Leahy; Senior Fellow for Technology and Public Policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Special Assistant to the President and National Security Council Legal Advisor, and earlier Deputy Legal Adviser, during the Clinton Administration; and Special Counsel to the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Defense. Earlier in her career, Ms. DeRosa was a lawyer at the Arnold & Porter law firm and a law clerk to the Honorable Richard Cardamone, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Janine Davidson, Ph.D., has served as president of Metropolitan State University of Denver since 2017. She is a national thought leader in higher education and on topics such as public service, U.S. foreign policy and national security.
Prior to her time at MSU Denver, Davidson served as the 32nd under secretary of the United States Navy. Her appointment by then-President Barack Obama as Navy “under” followed nearly 30 years of academic, civilian and military service.
She has taught at George Mason University, Georgetown University, Davidson College and various professional military schools, and was an aviation and aerobatics flight instructor at the U.S. Air Force Academy. She recently returned to the classroom at MSU Denver, co-teaching a course on the philosophical and legal origins of freedom of speech in the United States.
Davidson began her career as an Air Force officer and cargo pilot. She was a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Squadron Officer School and was the first woman to fly the Air Force’s tactical C-130. Her various honors include: HillVets Top 100 Most Influential Veterans; University of South Carolina Distinguished Alumna; Secretary of the Navy Medal for Distinguished Public Service; Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service; Girl Scouts of Colorado 2018 Woman of Distinction; the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce 2019 Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Business; a 2021 Denver Business Journal Most Admired CEO; and a 2022 9NEWS Leader of the Year finalist.
Jamie Jones Miller is the inaugural Dean and CEO of Northeastern University’s Arlington, VA campus, blending her passion for national security and developing the next generation of leaders. She most recently served as a Senior Advisor at The Roosevelt Group, a strategic advocacy and consulting firm, where she worked with a wide range of clients in the defense, security, and intelligence sectors.
Jamie’s 16 years of government service includes roles as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs (SES III) and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (SES II) where she advised the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense on legislative strategy and managed relationships with members of Congress and key congressional staff, the military departments as well as the White House, National Security Council and federal departments and agencies in support of DoD priorities. Jamie is a 2018 graduate of National Defense University’s PINNACLE flag and general officer course and was awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service by the Secretary of Defense in 2020.
Molly Montgomery is a Director of Public Policy at Meta, where she leads engagement with the diplomatic community and U.S. foreign affairs and national security agencies and advises on geopolitics and national security issues. She is also a member of the board of directors of Tenaris S.A. and an adjunct professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, where she teaches transatlantic relations.
Molly spent more than 15 years in government, serving most recently as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State responsible for relations with Western Europe, the European Union, and European regional economic affairs. As a career Foreign Service Officer she completed overseas tours in Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Latvia, and the United Arab Emirates. Her domestic assignments included serving in the Office of the Secretary of State and as Special Advisor to the Vice President for Europe and Eurasia. She was also a Senior Vice President in the Europe practice at Albright Stonebridge Group and a non-resident fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution.
Kimberly Lehn is the Senior Director at the Pacific Forum, in charge of the Honolulu Defense Forum (HDF). HDF seeks to facilitate dialogue and solutions between a wide range of actors from the private and public sectors to bolster deterrence in the Indo-Pacific in the face of an increasingly contested regional security environment.
She is a national security professional with over 20 years of experience in the U.S. federal government and in the private sector. She is the Founder of Diamond Pacific Strategies LLC in Honolulu, and a Senior Advisor at Beacon Global Strategies, a strategic advisory firm in Washington, D.C. advising leading companies on national security issues. She previously served in management and analytic roles at the Central Intelligence Agency as well as on assignments to the National Security Council’s Directorate of East Asia, the Department of State’s Intelligence and Research Bureau, and on the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee as a professional staff member with a focus on the Indo-Pacific, strategic competition with China and Russia, and the important role alliances and partnerships play to build collective security.
Caroline Zier has over 15 years of experience in defense and national security, and is currently the Deputy Lead for National Security Policy at OpenAI. She previously served as the Deputy Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense, where she was responsible for helping manage the Secretary of Defense’s executive staff and providing counsel and advice to the Secretary on all matters concerning the Department.
From 2021 to 2023, Caroline was the Senior Advisor and Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense with responsibility for policy and national security matters. From 2018 to 2021, Caroline was the Director for Global Posture within the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy, leading a team responsible for providing oversight and management of the forces, footprint, and agreements that support the Department’s global operations and activities.
From 2016 to 2018, Caroline served as the Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs. She joined the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy in 2009, and held several other positions in the organization. Prior to her government service, Caroline worked at Morgan Stanley in New York as an analyst. She graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts and received a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. She is the recipient of the Distinguished Public Service Award and the Meritorious Civilian Service Award. She is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.
Prior to her appointment as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, Elizabeth Fitzsimmons served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Togolese Republic from 2022-2024. She was previously the Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs. She has also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central Africa and Public Diplomacy, the Acting Deputy Spokesperson for the Department, Deputy Executive Secretary to Secretaries Kerry and Tillerson, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. She joined the Department in 1995, and at the time of her swearing in was the youngest member of the Foreign Service. She has served overseas in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Cambodia, India, Bulgaria, and Togo.
Eileen O’Connor is the senior vice president for Communications, Policy, and Advocacy, a member of the Foundation’s executive team, overseeing all government relations and strategic communications for all program priorities. Before joining the foundation, O’Connor spent her career as an attorney and award-winning journalist, serving as vice president of Yale University, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Obama administration, for South and Central Asia, and White House and foreign correspondent for CNN and ABC news. As an attorney, O’Connor specialized in complex litigation, political investigations, multi-party dispute negotiations, and crisis management in the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine. In government, O’Connor was awarded several Superior Honor awards for her work in Afghanistan, where she was posted for 14 months, Pakistan and South and Central Asia, countering violent extremism and building democratic institutions, including a focus on women’s peace and security programs. As a journalist she earned the Peabody Award, the DuPont Award, multiple Overseas Press Club awards, an Emmy, Cable Ace, and National Headliner awards for her documentary, investigative, and war-zone coverage in the former Soviet Union, Africa, and the Middle East. Her documentary on Russian organized crime garnered a NY Film Festival Golden Eagle award.
Linda Robinson is Senior Fellow for Women and Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she is currently writing a book about women political leaders and leadership archetypes. Robinson is a national security and foreign affairs expert, best-selling author, and prize-winning former foreign correspondent. She has testified before Congress multiple times on national security, the Middle East, and military issues. She is the author of three critically acclaimed and best-selling books about Afghanistan, Iraq and the special forces, One Hundred Victories (2013), Tell Me How This Ends (2008), and Masters of Chaos (2004).
She has served as chair of the Army War College Board of Visitors, for which she received the Army’s Outstanding Civilian Service Award, and as a member of the National Defense University board. She has also served as a senior adviser to the U.S. State Department, U.S. Central Command, and other military headquarters commands. As a volunteer advisor on the Biden presidential campaign, Robinson led the Special Operations / Low Intensity Conflict team of the Defense Working Group.
Before joining the Council on Foreign Relations, Robinson was a senior policy researcher and director of its Center for Middle East Public Policy at the RAND Corporation.
Caroline Tess is Executive Director of National Security Action and former Executive Director of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security.
Caroline served as Special Assistant to the President at the National Security Council during the Obama Administration. She also served at the State Department focusing on North America and U.S. relations with the United Nations. Caroline worked on Capitol Hill for several years, serving on the Senate Intelligence Committee and in the offices of Senators Harry Reid and Bill Nelson.
Nilmini Rubin is the Chief Policy Officer for Hedera, a fast and energy-efficient global blockchain platform. She co-founded Fix the System, a coalition of organizations committed to election integrity and democracy strengthening in the U.S. Previously, Nilmini headed Tetra Tech’s global team implementing energy and internet projects that resulted in millions of people gaining access to electricity for the first time. For twelve years, she served as a senior aide on both the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee where she spearheaded the passage of legislation to provide electricity access in Africa, increase global internet access, reduce corruption through transparency, and reform U.S. foreign assistance. As a Director at the National Security Council under President George W. Bush, Nilmini helped secure agreements on non-proliferation, international health and foreign aid. Nilmini was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and is a member of its Experts Network. She is an advisor to the Women’s Democracy Network and Energy Growth Hub, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Academy of the Global Teacher Prize and the International Mindfulness Teachers Association.
Dani Schulkin is Director of the Democracy Initiative at Just Security at NYU School of Law. Schulkin formerly served as Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General and Senior Advisor to the Homeland Security Advisor at the White House. Her work spans national security, democratic governance, and administrative law.
Schulkin served as Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, where she coordinated national security policy and led on issues ranging from election security and foreign malign influence to international synthetic opioid trafficking. She was also Senior Advisor to the Homeland Security Advisor at the National Security Council (NSC), managing domestic crisis response, terrorism prevention, and other domestic security issues from the White House. She began her service in the Biden Administration with the Office of the Staff Secretary, working on the team charged with reviewing all presidential briefing memos and executive actions.
Schulkin has held roles at the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), the New York Attorney General’s Bureau of Internet and Technology, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. She began her legal career as a Legal Fellow at Just Security. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, Yale Journal on Regulation, the University of Pennsylvania Regulatory Review, and Just Security, covering domestic terrorism, democratic governance, and national security. She holds a J.D. from NYU School of Law, where she received the Vanderbilt Medal and was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, and a B.A. from Harvard University, where she was Captain of the Harvard Women’s Swim and Dive Team.
Veronica Daigle is the President of National Security Practice at Red Cell Partners. She was previously the Director of Acquisition & Innovation Policy, Federal Legislative Affairs, Government Operations at The Boeing Company. Prior to joining Boeing in 2020, Ms. Daigle was the Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness in the Department of Defense (DoD), where she served as the principal staff advisor to the Secretary of Defense and the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness on all matters related to military readiness. In that position, Ms. Daigle managed three deputy assistant secretaries of defense, with a combined staff of over 50 military and civilian personnel.
Ms. Daigle entered the Federal Government in 2008 as a Presidential Management Fellow at the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and subsequently served as an operations research analyst in DoD’s office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE). From 2008 to 2013, Ms. Daigle assessed a wide-ranging portfolio of issues, including the operational requirements and costs for Army ground operations, the potential effect of continued Overseas Contingency Operations funding on readiness programs, and the sufficiency of resources to support mental health services for Service Members.
Stacie Pettyjohn is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Her areas of expertise include defense strategy, posture, force planning, the defense budget, and wargaming. Her current projects focus on munitions stockpiles, the effect of drones on warfare, and deterring the use of nuclear weapons in a multipolar world. Prior to joining CNAS, Pettyjohn spent over ten years at the RAND Corporation where she served as the Director of the Strategy and Doctrine Program in Project Air Force and the co-director of the Center for Gaming. In2020, she was a volunteer on the Biden administration’s defense transition team.
She has designed and led strategic and operational games that have assessed new operational concepts, tested the impacts of new technology, examined nuclear escalation and warfighting, and explored unclear phenomena, such as gray zone tactics and information warfare. Previously, she was a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, a peace scholar at the United States Institute of Peace, and a TAPIR fellow at the RAND Corporation.
Michele Pearce most recently served as Of Counsel at Covington and Burling LLP. Prior to Covington, Michele held several senior staff positions within the Department of Defense (DoD) and Congress. Most recently, she served as General Counsel (Acting) of the Department of the Army, providing legal and policy advice to the Secretary of the Army and other service leadership. In this role, Michele was responsible for legal matters related to modernizing acquisition and contracting practices to meet emerging threats, implementing AI and hypersonic systems, and reforming ethics and diversity and inclusion programs.
Prior to her role in the Army, Michele served as Deputy General Counsel (Legislation) at DoD. She was the principal legal advisor to DoD officials, including the Secretary of Defense, Deputy Secretary of Defense, and General Counsel on matters concerning legislation, investigations, and the Department’s Legislative Review Program, which considers more than 400 legislative proposals annually.
Senate Confirmed in August 2017, the Honorable Ellen M. Lord formerly served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (A&S). In this capacity, she was responsible to the Secretary of Defense for all matters pertaining to acquisition; developmental testing; contract administration; logistics and materiel readiness; installations and environment; operational energy; chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons; the acquisition workforce; and the defense industrial base.
Prior to this appointment, from October 2012 – June 2017, Ms. Lord served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Textron Systems Corporation, a subsidiary of Textron Inc. In this role, she led a multi-billion dollar business with a broad range of products and services supporting defense, homeland security, aerospace, infrastructure protection, and customers around the world.
Ms. Lord has more than 30 years of experience in the defense industry, serving in a variety of capacities, to include Senior Vice President and General Manager of Textron Defense Systems, now Weapon & Sensor Systems; and Senior Vice President and General Manager of AAI Corporation, now known as Textron Systems’ Electronic Systems, Support Solutions, and Unmanned Systems businesses. Earlier in her career, Ms. Lord served as Vice President of Integration Management for Textron Systems and Vice President of Intelligent Battlefield Systems for Textron Defense Systems, in addition to other business and operations positions.
Rachel Vogelstein is a Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and Director of the Women’s Initiative at the Columbia Institute of Global Politics, where she focuses on gender equality in the U.S. and globally. Most recently, she served in the Biden Administration as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House Gender Policy Council and Special Advisor on Gender at the National Security Council, leading policy development on health and reproductive rights, economic security, and democracy and political participation, among other issues. For over a decade, Rachel was an advisor to Secretary Hillary Clinton on women’s issues, serving on both of her presidential campaigns and as the Director of Girls’ and Women’s Initiatives at the Clinton Foundation. During the Obama Administration, she was an official in the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues at the U.S. Department of State, where she developed a landmark foreign policy agenda for women’s empowerment. Previously, she served as the Douglas Dillion Senior Fellow and Director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is the author of Awakening: #MeToo and the Global Fight for Women’s Rights, which was recognized by the New York Times for capturing the global impact of the #MeToo movement, and began her career as a lawyer focused on reproductive rights.
Shelly O’Neill Stoneman is a seasoned global leader, trusted with managing complex business and policy issues at the highest levels of government and industry. She is the founder and principal of StonePoint Strategies, drawing upon her 25 years of experience working across all three branches of the U.S. Government and in the C-suite of Fortune 500 companies.
Stoneman most recently served as senior vice president of Government Affairs for Lockheed Martin, one of the world’s largest aerospace and defense companies, with over 120,000 employees and sales over $71 billion in 2024. As one of the company’s corporate officers, she managed Lockheed’s activities with Congress and the Executive Branch, and directed all federal, state and local government customer relationships – efforts that ranged from saving the corporation billions of dollars in tax incentives to working closely with governors on workforce improvements. In this role, she regularly engaged with the corporation’s Board of Directors, advising on strategy and risk. Prior to joining Lockheed Martin in 2023, Stoneman led Government Relations at BAE Systems, Inc., where she oversaw engagement with the White House, Pentagon, State Department, and Intelligence Community for the global aerospace and defense company’s U.S. subsidiary.
Dr. Kimberly A. McClain is a global strategist, retired U.S. Air Force Reserve officer, and CEO of TMG Strategic Advisors, LLC, a boutique firm advising governments, corporations, and investors on geopolitical risk, public-private partnerships, and enterprise resilience. With more than three decades of service across the U.S. military, federal government, and private sector, she is recognized for bringing clarity and precision to high-stakes decisions.
A Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Dr. McClain led enterprise-wide strategy for a $79B federal budget, supported $1T in grants and $6T in securities, and secured $400M in reinvestments for underserved programs. At the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, she coauthored breakthrough legislation that delivered long-term health benefits to over 5M veterans. Earlier, as an Air Force executive, she directed policy and engagement for a $179B enterprise, improving operational performance and strengthening congressional relationships.
Her distinguished military career spanned 30 years, including senior advisory roles for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where she negotiated $2B in international defense partnerships and built enduring coalitions across 45+ countries. She also pioneered the first regional cybersecurity cooperation strategy for Latin America under U.S. Cyber Command.
Ambassador (ret.) Greta C. Holtz is the President and CEO of Amideast, a leading non-profit organization which works to provide live-changing educational and exchange programs in the Middle East and North Africa and for U.S. students and faculty. Ambassador Holtz served as a career diplomat with extensive experience in the Middle East and North Africa. She was the U.S. Ambassador to Oman from 2012 to 2015, the Chargé d’affaires in Qatar from 2020-2021, and the Minister-Counselor for Provincial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad from 2009 to 2010. Additional overseas postings included Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Tunisia, Syria, and Turkey, and her domestic assignments included serving as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communication in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, and the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia.
Ambassador Holtz’s broad experience encompasses a number of other positions, including as Chancellor and Vice Chancellor of the College of International Security Affairs at the National Defense University, and Senior U.S. Coordinator for Operations Allies Refuge (OAR) in Doha, Qatar. Ambassador Holtz also served as the State Department’s Coordinator for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a Senior Watch Officer in the State Department’s Executive Secretariat’s Operations Center, a 24/7 crisis management and communications center, and the Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the Commanding General of the U.S. Special Operations Command, providing strategic guidance for special operations missions worldwide.
Ambassador Holtz holds a BS in Political Science from Vanderbilt University, an MS in International Relations from the University of Kentucky’s Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce, and an MS in National Security Studies from the National War College. She speaks French, Arabic, and Turkish, and is the recipient of numerous State Department awards, as well as awards from the Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency. She is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy, a member of the Board of Advisors for Spirit of America, and a member of the Board of Directors for The Marshall Legacy Institute. Ambassador Holtz is a non-resident Distinguished Fellow at the University of South Florida’s Global and National Security Institute and is a distinguished graduate of University of Kentucky’s Patterson School of International relations and Commerce.
Asha Castleberry is a distinguished national security & foreign policy expert, a public speaker, television media commentator, a United States Army Veteran, and a former U.S. Congressional Candidate. She is an author of a memoir titled, “ Why National Security Matters.” Castleberry has over a decade of experience working as a Middle East Policy Expert in the public and private sectors. For the Biden-Harris Administration, she served as a Senior Official (Senior Executive Service) in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (Middle East Policy) in the U.S.State Department. From 2012-2015, Castleberry served in Kuwait, Iraq, and Jordan. She previously served as the Kuwait Desk Officer in the U.S. Army Central. She also served as a Senior Key Leader Engagement Officer for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve. Before her deployment, Asha worked in the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, where she worked on the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Africa.
Castleberry is a sought-after expert globally and has worked with many U.S. Ambassadors. This year, Asha served on a panel with high-level Iraqi officials (with Senior officials from members of Parliament and military officers) to discuss combating ISIS and the role of China at the Erbil Security Forum in Iraq.
AT Johnston currently serves as a Professional Staff Member on the House Energy & Commerce Committee. She is an experienced senior government official with twenty-five plus years of service. As an inclusive, mission-driven leader, Johnston demonstrates a heart for supporting people and organizations in service to others and she is passionate about growing the next generation of leaders.
As a senior leader at the Pentagon, Johnston served as the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs (OSDLA) where she advised the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense on legislative strategy and developed and executed the congressional engagement strategy. She managed the DOD legislative interface as part of the whole of government response to the COVID 19 pandemic, during a time of civil unrest and transition.
Johnston previouslyas the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy (MC&FP) where she embraced the concept that “if the family is not ready, the service member can not be ready and that is a threat to national security.” She oversaw increased participation in the Military Spouse Employment Partnership Program, setting the goal of reaching 500 participants by 2020. During her tenure, MC&FP established an MOU with LinkedIn allowing for military spouses to have free access to LinkedIn premium each time the service member has a permanent change of station. And, as Special Assistant to the President, Johnston served as the Principal Liaison and advocate for the President of the United States on key Administration policies.
AT and her husband Murray live in Alexandria, Virginia and they have 2 grown children.
Dr. Liz Sherwood-Randall is currently a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She has had a trailblazing career in national and homeland security, serving in key leadership roles at the White House, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Defense. Most recently, Liz worked in the West Wing from 2021-2025 as the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Deputy National Security Advisor. In that high stakes position, she pioneered Federal efforts to strengthen national preparedness for and resilience to emerging threats. She spearheaded Federal crisis management for a wide range of challenges including mass shootings, domestic and international terrorist attacks, extreme weather events, and critical infrastructure disruptions. She guided the development and implementation of new strategies to counter terrorism at home and around the world. She innovated policies to prevent, prepare, and respond to natural and pernicious biological risks, including mpox, avian flu, and the convergence of advances in biotechnology and artificial intelligence. She built a counter-fentanyl campaign involving Mexico, Canada, and China, and mobilized a global coalition of more than 80 partner countries to disrupt the synthetic opioid supply chain and save American lives.
During the Obama Administration, Liz served in three successive roles: Deputy Secretary of Energy (2014-2017); White House Coordinator for Defense Policy, Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction and Arms Control (2013-2014); and Senior Director for Europe on the National Security Council (2009-2013). She served in the Clinton Administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia (1994-1996). At the beginning of her career, she served as Chief Foreign Affairs and Defense Policy Advisor to Senator Joe Biden. She has been repeatedly recognized for her leadership, including with the Secretary of Energy Exceptional Service Award, the Department of Defense Nunn-Lugar Trailblazer Award, and the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service.
Liz has taught, conducted research, and mentored students at universities and think tanks including Harvard, Stanford, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Council on Foreign Relations. She has also advised national laboratories, power grid and cybersecurity startups, and energy investment funds.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Liz graduated from Harvard College and received her doctorate in international relations as a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College of Oxford University. She is married to Dr. Jeffrey Randall, a neurosurgeon in the California Bay Area, and they have two sons.
Jen Daskal is a Partner at Venable LLP. She is a national security legal and policy expert, with years of experience managing crisis, mitigating risk, and working at the intersection of technology, policy and law. From October 2023 to January 2025, Daskal served as the Deputy Homeland Security Advisor at the White House. Before that, she was the Principal Deputy Legal Advisor at the National Security Council and served as Acting General Counsel at the Department of Homeland Security, where she oversaw over 3,000 attorneys, including the Department’s cybersecurity, intelligence, litigation, and law enforcement legal teams.
Before joining the federal government, Daskal was a tenured law professor at American University Washington College of Law (WCL) until February 2021. In 2020, she founded and served as the first Faculty Director of WCL’s Tech, Law & Security Program. As a law professor, she wrote extensively on issues of data security and data privacy, testified multiple times before Congress, and won several awards for her work.
Dr. Evelyn N. Farkas has three decades of experience working on national security and foreign policy in the U.S. executive, legislative branch, private sector and for international organizations overseas. She is currently the executive director of the McCain Institute at Arizona State University. Prior to that, she was president of Farkas Global Strategies and a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Atlantic Council and national security contributor for NBC/MSNBC.
She served from 2012 to 2015 as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia/Ukraine/Eurasia, also covering the Balkans, Caucasus and conventional arms control. From 2010 to 2012, she was the senior advisor to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe and special advisor to the Secretary of Defense for the NATO Summit. Prior to that, she was the executive director of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism and senior fellow at the American Security Project. From 2001 to 2008, she served as a professional staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee responsible for Asia Pacific, Western Hemisphere, Special Operations Command, and policy issues including combatting terrorism and export control.
From 1997-2001, Dr. Farkas was a professor of international relations at the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College. She served 1996-97 in Bosnia with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). She has published numerous journal articles and opinion pieces, including “Fractured States and U.S. Foreign Policy: Iraq, Ethiopia, and Bosnia in the 1990s” (Palgrave/St Martin’s Press). She speaks Hungarian and German and has studied French, Spanish, Serbo-Croatian, Russian, and Hindi.
Margaret Boatner serves as Vice President of National Security Policy at the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), where she leads the development and execution of strategic initiatives related to defense acquisition, procurement, and the defense industrial base. With nearly 15 years of experience at the Pentagon, Boatner has played a pivotal role in shaping Department of Defense (DOD) acquisition policy and developing and implementing acquisition reform efforts.
Most recently, Boatner served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Strategy and Acquisition Reform (DASA(SAR)). In this role, she was the lead executive for the design and implementation of Army-wide acquisition policy affecting the development and production of warfighting capabilities. Boatner was also responsible for leading consistent implementation of new statutory authorities affecting Army programs of record, engaging with Congressional committee staff on legislation affecting the acquisition process, and guiding the development of related acquisition legislative proposals. During her tenure, Boatner orchestrated Army-wide initiatives that overhauled policy on intellectual property, software development and acquisition, and industrial base resilience. Boatner also led a broad effort to streamline and simplify the DOD acquisition processes in collaboration with OSD stakeholders.
Paloma Adams-Allen is President and Chief Executive Officer of Airlink, a nonprofit organization that harnesses the power of aviation to provide humanitarian relief to communities in crisis. Prior to Airlink, she served in the Biden Administration as the United States Agency for International Development’s Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Administrator for Management and Resources. As second in command, she oversaw operations in over a 100 countries and led an ambitious internal reform agenda that modernized private sector engagement, spurred locally-led development, and slashed bureaucratic burdens on staff and partners.
Adams-Allen was the President and CEO of the Inter-American Foundation from 2017-2021, a period of transformation for the foundation marked by significant growth in its revenues, geographic reach, and partnerships. She has also served in senior roles at Winrock International and USAID’s Latin America and Caribbean Bureau, where she launched new public private partnerships outfits to mobilize funding and know-how and scale development impact. Adams-Allen, who speaks Spanish, also worked at the Organization of American States in programming and leadership roles for over a decade. She is currently the President of Brown University’s Women’s Alumni Network, and serves on the boards of the global non profit, Pact, and the French social impact organization, Livelihoods Venture.
Ms. Adams-Allen spent her childhood between rural Jamaica and the New England region of the U.S. She earned a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center, a Bachelor of Arts in Development Studies from Brown University, and a Masters in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. An avid hiker and gardener, she lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, two awesome daughters, and an energetic puppy.
Mary Beth Bruggeman spent eight years as an active-duty Marine combat engineer. Upon leaving active duty, Mary Beth worked for iRobot Corporation for four years, advancing their work on counter-IED robotics, spent time as a stay-at-home mom and Marine wife, and then started a fitness and nutrition coaching business.
Mary Beth joined the Mission Continues team in 2015 as the Executive Director for the Southeast Region. In 2019, Mary Beth assumed the role of President of The Mission Continues. Mary Beth has degrees from the U.S. Naval Academy (BS) and Georgetown University (MPP), and is an alum of the George W. Bush Institute’s Stand-To Veteran Leadership Program. She lives in Fairfax Station, VA, with her husband Brian, a retired Marine, and their three kids.
John B. Bellinger III is a partner and co-chair of the Global Law & Public Policy Practice at Arnold & Porter. He is also Adjunct Senior Fellow in International and National Security Law at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mr. Bellinger served as The Legal Adviser for the U.S. Department of State under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from 2005 to 2009. He previously managed Secretary Rice’s Senate confirmation and co-directed her State Department transition team. He received the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award in January 2009.
Mr. Bellinger served from 2001 to 2005 as Senior Associate Counsel to the President and Legal Adviser to the National Security Council at the White House. He previously served as Counsel for National Security Matters in the Criminal Division of the Justice Department during the Clinton Administration (1997-2001), Special Counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (1996), and Special Assistant to Director of Central Intelligence William Webster (1988-1991).
Ambassador James O’Brien most recently served as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs after previously serving as Head of the Office of Sanctions Policy prior to this role.
Mr. O’Brien was Vice Chair of Albright Stonebridge Group (ASG) and led the firm’s Europe practice. A founder of the firm, he has worked extensively on issues affecting consumer goods, health, entertainment, environment, media (including free speech), information technology, telecommunications, and finance sectors. Mr. O’Brien is also a member of the management and investment committees of Albright Capital Management LLC, an affiliated investment advisory firm focused on emerging markets.
Mr. O’Brien has served two U.S. administrations as special presidential envoy, securing the release of Americans held hostage abroad and overseeing U.S. policy planning towards the Balkans. He has been senior advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State and served as the principal deputy director of policy planning at the State Department. He worked to end armed conflicts in Europe, helped develop non-proliferation initiatives after the Cold War, negotiated environmental agreements, and supported initiatives to investigate and prosecute persons responsible for war crimes.
Melissa G. Dalton has over 20 years of experience in U.S. defense, aerospace, and national security affairs. She served as the 28th under secretary of the Air Force. She was responsible for organizing, training, and equipping the U.S. Air Force and Space Force, overseeing an annual budget exceeding $200 billion, and accountable for the welfare of nearly 700,000 active-duty, guard, reserve, and civilian Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Ms. Dalton performed the duties of deputy under secretary of defense for policy from December 2023 to May 2024, when she served as the principal advisor to the secretary of defense on the formation of national security and defense policy. Additionally, she served as the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs from March 2022 to May 2024. She joined the Biden administration in January 2021 as the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans, and capabilities. From 2014 to 2021, Ms. Dalton led research and analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, including directing the Cooperative Defense Project and serving as deputy director and senior fellow in the International Security Program. Ms. Dalton served for more than a decade as a career civil servant in the Bush and Obama administrations within the Department of Defense. Ms. Dalton is a recipient of the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal. She was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs fellow and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a Principal at WestExec Advisors, a Non-Resident Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Board Member of the Saber Six Foundation, and is the Principal of Potomac River Strategies, LLC.
Prior to returning to Stanford University, Dr. Van Schaack served as Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice in the U.S. State Department office where she once served as Deputy. GCJ advised the Secretary of State and the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights on issues related to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide and the deployment of the whole range of transitional justice mechanisms in states emerging from violence or repression. Prior to returning to public service, Dr. Van Schaack was the Leah Kaplan Visiting Professor in Human Rights at Stanford Law School, where she taught international criminal law, human rights, human trafficking, and a policy lab on Legal & Policy Tools for Preventing Atrocities. In addition, she directed Stanford’s International Human Rights & Conflict Resolution Clinic. Ambassador Van Schaack has published numerous articles and papers on international human rights and justice issues, including her 2020 thesis, Imagining Justice for Syria (Oxford University Press). From 2014 to 2022, she served as Executive Editor for Just Security, an online forum for the analysis of national security, foreign policy, and rights.
Julie Myers Wood has more than 30 years of experience in the public and private sector working on regulatory and enforcement issues from many perspectives, including as federal prosecutor, defense counsel, government investigator and compliance consultant. Key highlights include leading 15,000 special agents, lawyers, and officers at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS); helping the President choose cabinet members to serve in his administration; and co-founding a compliance software and consulting startup, which was later acquired by Guidepost Solutions. Ms. Wood is currently the Chief Executive Officer at Guidepost Solutions, a leading investigations, compliance, monitoring, and security firm with offices throughout the United States, as well as England, Colombia, Mexico and Singapore.
Before joining the private sector, Ms. Wood held several high-level positions with the U.S. government at four government agencies (DOJ, DHS, Treasury and Commerce), as well as the White House. At the White House, she helped President George W. Bush identify key cabinet and sub-cabinet officials, including at DOJ, DHS, and DOD. At DHS, she led 15,000 special agents, lawyers, and officers at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the largest investigative component and second largest investigative agency in the federal government. She oversaw the Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) division at ICE and the agency’s initiatives to combat human trafficking as well as its investigative work to prevent child exploitation. While serving as Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement at the Department of Commerce, Ms. Wood was responsible for all dual-use export enforcement and special agents and she oversaw the enforcement of criminal and civil violations of export enforcement laws, including those involving telecommunications companies and encryption issues. At the Department of Justice, she served as Chief of Staff for the Assistant Attorney General of DOJ’s Criminal Division and also prosecuted cases as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, including securities fraud, organized crime, money laundering, and bankruptcy fraud. As a Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Department of Treasury, she developed policy and ran a team responsible for money laundering and customs enforcement matters.
Ms. Wood serves on several nonprofit boards and advisory boards relating to national security and immigration. She has been recognized with numerous industry and leadership awards, including the naming of the Julie L. Myers Conference Center at ICE Headquarters, in honor of her contributions and leadership at the Department of Homeland Security.
Soladé Rowe is Partner at the leading talent advisory firm, DHR Global where he advises government and nonprofit clients on executive recruitment, performance management, and leadership coaching. Prior to executive search, Soladé held several HR management roles within the retail, life sciences, management consulting, and investment banking industries. In his last corporate position, he held talent acquisition and performance management responsibilities, where he played a vital role in the company’s merger integration and supported the expansion of its e-commerce business. Soladé started his career in higher education and has served as a Trustee for his alma mater for over 20 years and serves as Chair of the Compensation Committee.
A first-generation American from Sierra Leone, Soladé holds a Bachelor of Science in International Business from Utica University and a Master of Science in Organizational Change Management from The New School for Social Research in New York City. He is also certified in Hogan Leadership Assessments. A native New Yorker, Soladé resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife and two sons.
Jamie Jackson is an attorney and public speaker who provides insider political analysis on U.S. public policy developments. Drawing on her unique blend of experience as a former White House, Pentagon, and congressional leadership aide, she has built a career advising political leaders and organizations on complex legal and policy issues. Her areas of expertise include defense policy, emerging technologies, social justice reform, congressional investigations, and legislative procedure.
In her role as Senior Counsel to then-U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Jackson played a pivotal role in shaping consequential federal legislation. As Deputy General Counsel for the U.S. House Armed Services Committee (HASC), Jackson was integral in drafting and negotiating defense policy legislation, as part of the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). She also held key national security roles during the Obama and Biden administrations.
Anne Witkowsky previously served as Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations.
Previously, Witkowsky served as the Co-Director of the Task Force on U.S. Strategy to Support Democracy and Counter Authoritarianism, a partnership of Freedom House. From 2014-2016, she served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Stability and Humanitarian Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). She held policy responsibility for peacekeeping and stability operations; humanitarian assistance and disaster response; DoD support to the security of U.S. embassies; and international humanitarian law, rule of law and protection of human rights. Her office coordinated the DoD policy role in key Administration initiatives, such as the U.S. Ebola response, strengthening United Nations peace operations, and support to embassy security.
From 2009-2013, she served as the Deputy Coordinator for Homeland Security and Multilateral Affairs (DAS equivalent) in the Bureau of Counterterrorism (CT), U.S. Department of State, with responsibility for terrorist designations and sanctions; strengthening international transportation security; developing bilateral information sharing agreements; and building CT cooperation within multilateral organizations. In 2012-2013, she also served as the CT Bureau’s Acting Principal Deputy Coordinator.
Shelby Pierson advises a broad range of defense-tech, AI, and national-security companies across venture-backed, early-stage, and growth ecosystems, with a tireless focus on integration and operational outcomes. She partners with CEOs, founders, and investors to scale technology for government adoption, accelerate product-market fit inside the national security enterprise, and shape mission-aligned strategies for data, AI/ML, advanced sensing, and geospatial innovation.
Shelby also serves on corporate boards, bringing expertise in enterprise risk, oversight, modernization, and international partnership management. Her portfolio work focuses on building tech-forward operating rhythms, aligning investments to measurable mission value, and strengthening governance to deliver durable performance. Shelby has more than 25 years of national security leadership experience in the U.S. intelligence community, known for translating strategy into execution across large, matrixed organizations.
Brandi Vann, PhD, is a globally experienced national security executive, currently serving as Director for Strategy at Draper and a member of the Board of Directors of 908 Devices. In these roles, she helps organizations strengthen their business and technical strategies and engage effectively with national security communities worldwide.
In July 2025, Dr. Vann concluded a distinguished career in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), where she most recently served as the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs (ASD(NCB)) and as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs. In this capacity, she advised the senior Defense Department leadership on management and execution of programs related to nuclear weapons, biological and chemical defense programs, chemical demilitarization, countering weapons of mass destruction, and treaty management. She also served as Staff Director of the Nuclear Weapons Council, leading efforts to assess and maintain the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, ensure sustainment and operations of deployed systems, and plan for modernization. Across her DoD tenure, Dr. Vann contributed to every phase of capability development, including policy, strategy, research and development, acquisition, and operations. Before serving as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs she was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Chemical and Biological Defense. She oversaw a multibillion-dollar portfolio spanning chemical and biological defense, counterproliferation, countering weapons of mass destruction, nuclear forensics, international cooperation, and business operations. Notably, she co-led the first-ever Biodefense Posture Review (BPR), which fundamentally reformed DoD policy, strategy, and execution of global biodefense operations. In 2023, President Biden awarded Dr. Vann the Meritorious Presidential Rank Award for her transformative contributions to biodefense and her support of critical DoD initiatives.
Before joining the Department of Defense, Dr. Vann served as Director of Laboratories at Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corporation and was a visiting scientist at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Dr. Vann holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of South Carolina, where she specialized in analytical chemistry and applied statistics.
Tressa Steffen Guenov is Director for Programs and Operations & Senior Fellow, Scowcroft Center for Security Studies at the Atlantic Council. She previously served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (ISA), Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (OUSDP). In that role she supported the Assistant Secretary of Defense/ISA in a range of policy, leadership, management, and advisory capacities for the offices of African Affairs; European and NATO Policy; the Middle East; and Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia.
Previously, Tressa was Senior Adviser to Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. Kathleen Hicks, where she supported the Deputy on a variety of strategy development and stakeholder engagement efforts. Tressa also served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs (Acting) and PDASD for Legislative Affairs from 2015-2017. In her government career she also served in the State Department as a Presidential Management Fellow, as a special assistant to USDP and the Principal Deputy USDP, and as a country director for Central Asia issues.
Heidi is a General Partner and Executive Vice President at America’s Frontier Fund, a venture capital fund that invests in frontier technologies vital to the long-term competitiveness and national security of the United States and close allies. She is also an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations where she specializes in Economic Statecraft and leads the high-level Roundtable Series on Geoeconomics. She is the former CEO, and remains a Partner, at International Capital Strategies – a boutique advisory firm that provides clients with market-relevant insights on the intersection of macroeconomics, geopolitics, policy and global financial markets.
She served on the Biden Treasury Department Transition team as lead on International Affairs through January 2021. From August 2019 through the 2020 election, she led and built Biden’s international economic policy team for his Presidential campaign, crafting and contributing to incoming Administration policy on national economic security, China policy, supply chain resilience, trade, energy and energy security, the IMF and Multilateral Development Banks, sanctions and export controls, as well as to the domestic competitiveness and investment agenda.
Leah Nodvin is the Director of Government and External Affairs at the BMW Group, where she supports U.S. – European relations and covers the federal sustainability portfolio. Previously, Leah served as the Chief of Staff for the Bureau of Europe and Eurasia at USAID. Prior to joining USAID, she worked on Capitol Hill and most recently served as the Staff Director for the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee for Europe, working on behalf of Congressman Bill Keating of Massachusetts. During her time on Capitol Hill, Leah also served as a Professional Staff Member on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee for Europe as well as a Foreign Affairs Legislative Assistant for a Senior Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Prior to her time in Washington, Leah completed a research Fellowship with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna, Austria. Leah holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University as well as master’s degrees from the University College’s London School of Slavonic and East European Studies and the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. Leah is currently completing a master’s degree in Defense and Strategic Studies at the Naval War College. Leah grew up in New Hampshire and speaks basic French, intermediate Russian, fluent German and is a native English speaker.
Suzanne Spaulding is senior adviser for homeland security and director of the Defending Democratic Institutions project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She also serves as a member of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission. Previously, she served as Undersecretary for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where she led the National Protection and Programs Directorate, now called the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), managing a $3 billion budget and a workforce of 18,000, charged with strengthening cybersecurity and protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure, including election infrastructure. She led the transformation of budget, acquisition, analytic, and operational processes to bring greater agility and unity of effort to an organization that had experienced dramatic growth through acquisition of new entities and missions over several years. Throughout her career, Ms. Spaulding has advised CEOs, boards, and government policymakers on how to manage complex security risks across all industry sectors. At DHS, she led the development and implementation of national policies for strengthening the security and resilience of critical infrastructure against cyber and physical risks, including the National Infrastructure Protection Plan and key presidential directives and executive orders.
Ambassador Nina Hachigian (ret) was the first U.S. Special Representative for City and State Diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State from 2022 to 2025 in the Biden Administration. Before that, Amb, Hachigian served as the first Deputy Mayor for International Affairs for the City of Los Angeles for five years. From 2014 to 2017, Ambassador Hachigian served as the second U.S. Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the Obama Administration. Earlier, she was a Senior Fellow and a Senior Vice President at the Center for American Progress focused on Asia policy and U.S.-China relations. Before that, Ambassador Hachigian was the director of the RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy for four years.
Ambassador Hachigian served on the staff of the National Security Council in the Clinton White House from 1998-1999. She is the editor of Debating China: The U.S. – China Relationship in Ten Conversations (Oxford University Press, 2014) and co-author of The Next American Century: How the U.S. Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise (Simon & Schuster, 2008). She went to Yale University and got her JD from Stanford University.
Leanne G. Caret is a senior advisor to Blackstone, a private equity investment firm. She brings expertise in public company executive leadership, global operations and sales, and technology and innovation. Prior to her retirement in December 2022, Caret served as executive vice president and senior advisor to The Boeing Company, and previously was the president and chief executive officer of Boeing Defense, Space and Security. Caret held numerous leadership roles over her 34+ year career with Boeing, including chief financial officer for Boeing Defense, Space and Security. Caret is a member of the Deere & Company and RTX (formerly Raytheon Technologies) Board of Directors. Additionally, she serves as a board member for the Kansas State University Foundation, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and the USO. In addition to being a 2019 inductee of the Women in Aviation International Pioneer Hall of Fame. Fortune magazine named her to its Most Powerful Women list in 2021 for the fifth consecutive year. Caret is a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a member of the Trilateral Commission. She received an MBA from Wichita State University and a BS from Kansas State University.
Dr. Rebecca Bill Chavez is president and CEO of the Inter-American Dialogue. She is formerly a senior fellow in the Dialogue’s Rule of Law Program. She is a member of the Truman Center for National Policy Board of Directors, the Leadership Council for Women in National Security (LCWINS) Steering Committee, the Princeton University Institute for Regional and International Studies Advisory Board, and the Foreign Policy for America Advisory Board.
Dr. Chavez served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Western Hemisphere Affairs from 2013 until 2016 where she prioritized Women, Peace, and Security initiatives, combatting the militarization of law enforcement, and expanding defense institution building programs. Her areas of focus included shaping Defense Department contributions to President Obama’s Central America Strategy, moving the U.S.- Mexico relationship beyond the narrow counternarcotics focus, supporting the Colombian peace process, resetting defense relations with Argentina and Brazil, and establishing a productive dialogue with Cuba on humanitarian assistance and disaster response.
M. Tia Johnson, Visiting Professor of Law, was Director of the National Security Law LL.M Program at Georgetown Law and a Visiting Fellow at Georgetown’s Center on National Security and the Law. She is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for National Security Law at the University of Virginia School of Law. Immediately prior to her appointment at Georgetown, she served in the Obama Administration as the Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Before that, Professor Johnson was the Senior Advisor to the Director at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Professor Johnson retired from the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, where she specialized in international and national security law. In 2002, she became the first African-American female to be selected to the rank of Colonel in the U.S. Army’s JAG Corps’ 227-year history. In her final assignment, she served as the Senior Military Assistant to the Department of Defense General Counsel.
