Nina Hachigian

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.

Bonny Lin is a senior fellow for Asian security and director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Previously, she was the acting associate director of the Strategy and Doctrine Program of RAND Project AIR FORCE and a political scientist at the RAND Corporation, where she analyzed different aspects of U.S. competition with China, including U.S.-China competition for influence in the Indo-Pacific and China’s use of gray zone tactics against U.S. allies and partners.

Her research advised senior leaders in the Department of Defense, including military leaders at U.S. Pacific Air Forces and U.S. Army Pacific. Dr. Lin also served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2015 to 2018, where she was director for Taiwan, country director for China, and senior adviser for China. Dr. Lin holds a PhD in political science from Yale University, a master’s degree in Asian studies with a focus on China from the University of Michigan, and a bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard College.

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.

Reta Jo Lewis most recently served as President and Chair of the Export Import Bank.  Previously, she was Senior Fellow and Director of Congressional Affairs at The German Marshall Fund of the United States where she was the principal liaison between GMF and Congress and built extensive congressional relationships.  During the Obama Administration, from 2010 to 2013, she served as the U. S. Department of States’ first-ever Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs, under Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. Lewis led the office charged with building strategic peer- to-peer relationships between the Department of State, U.S. state and local officials, and their foreign counterparts. In her post, she served as the State Department’s lead interlocutor in negotiating and executing the first historic agreements to solidify subnational cooperation and engagement efforts with BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries and with targeted countries in the European Union. She was the principal architect that led the global engagement of U.S. state and local government leaders’ integration into and strategy regarding sustainability and climate change to RIO+20, COP-16, COP-17 and COP-18. In 2013, she was awarded the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award.

Mariah Sixkiller is a Director at Hakluyt & Co, a strategic consulting firm based in London.  She works in the San Francisco office and specializes in tech policy and regulatory matters for corporate and investor clients. Before joining Hakluyt in 2023, Mariah was the General Manager for Strategy in Microsoft’s US Department of Defense business. She also served as Director of Government Relations for Microsoft’s National Security Government Affairs team, focusing on public policy related to cloud, AI, quantum, and national security matters.

Laura McAleer is the University of Notre Dame’s Associate Vice President for Federal and Washington Relations, responsible for the development and execution of the University’s strategic priorities in the Nation’s capital.

Prior to joining Notre Dame, McAleer served for more than twenty years as a defense and foreign policy advisor and analyst, most recently at the Department of Defense as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Senate Affairs and acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs. Previously, she worked on Capitol Hill for more than a decade, serving as a national security and foreign policy advisor to four U.S. Senators and on the Majority Staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In addition to her congressional experience, McAleer’s public service includes assignments as a strategy and plans officer for U.S. Special Operations Command Africa, as an analyst and program manager with the Office of Naval Intelligence, and as the Director for Strategic Initiatives for the Secretary of the Navy. She also served for more than a decade as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve.

Heather Samuelson is an attorney and strategic advisor with nearly two decades of experience in government, politics and the non-profit sector. She most recently served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Confirmations Counsel in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, guiding hundreds of Biden-Harris Administration nominees through the Senate confirmation process. Heather also served in the Obama-Biden Administration, first as White House Liaison at the U.S. Department of State, and then as Assistant Counsel in the White House Counsel’s Office. In these roles, she directed recruitment and vetting for national security positions and advised officials on federal ethics compliance.

Prior to rejoining government, Heather was the first General Counsel for the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) overseeing all legal matters for NDWA and its sister organization Care in Action. Heather also served as a longtime attorney and advisor to Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, including representing the Secretary before the U.S. House Select Committee on Benghazi, and serving as Chief Counsel for the 2016 Clinton-Kaine Pre-Election Transition team.

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.

A retired career diplomat from the US Department of State, Annie is a Senior Non-Resident Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, an Adjunct Professor at the City University of New York, and a public commentator on foreign policy. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and active on non-profit boards relating to NewYork City and Afghanistan advocacy.

As a self-employed consultant, Annie works with non-profits and think tanks on issues relating to US policymaking and fragile states, international organized crime, Afghanistan, and Latin America.

Her thirty-year diplomatic career focused on security, rule of law, and human rights policy. She was the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Afghanistan and Deputy Chief of Mission in Kabul; Office Director for UN Peacekeeping and Sanctions; head of the $700 million security assistance program in Mexico; the lead human rights officer in Turkey and South Africa; and a Director at the National Security Council implementing policy on Central American migration. Ms. Pforzheimer is a graduate of Harvard, with a Masters in National Security Studies from the National Defense University.

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.

Christine Abizaid led the United States Government’s counterterrorism enterprise while serving as the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) from June 2021 to July 2024. She was the eighth Senate confirmed Director and the first woman to lead NCTC, the primary U.S. intelligence organization that integrates, analyzes, and shares terrorism information.

Before joining NCTC, Abizaid was as an executive at Dell Technologies in its Global Operations organization, where she led and advised on geopolitical and strategic risk analysis; supply chain security; sustainability and transparency initiatives; compliance; and global inventory management. While in the private sector, Abizaid was aboard member for the Responsible Business Alliance; a board member at the Middle East Policy Council; and an inaugural Steering Committee Member for the Leadership Council for Women in National Security (LCWINS).

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.

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.

Lisa Curtis is Senior Fellow and Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. She is a foreign policy and national security expert with over 20 years of service in the U.S. government, including at the NSC, CIA, State Department, and Capitol Hill. Her work has centered on U.S. policy toward the Indo-Pacific and South Asia, with a particular focus on Afghanistan, U.S.- India strategic relations, Quad (U.S., Australia, India, and Japan) cooperation, counterterrorism strategy in South and Central Asia, and China’s role in the region.

Curtis served as Deputy Assistant to the President and NSC Senior Director for South and Central Asia from 2017-2021 under three successive National Security Advisors. During her tenure at the NSC, she coordinated U.S. policy development and implementation of the South Asia Strategy approved by the President in 2017 and was the NSC representative at several rounds of the U.S.-Taliban negotiations held in 2019 and 2020. She was also a key contributor to the Indo-Pacific Strategic Framework approved by the President in 2018.

Dr. Laura Taylor-Kale is the Senior Fellow for Geoeconomics and Defense at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) where she conducts research on economic security and defense industrial policy and investments. She is also a Senior Research Fellow in the Blue Center for Global Strategic Assessment at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs.

From 2023-2025, Dr. Taylor-Kale served as the first Presidentially-Appointed, Senate-Confirmed Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy.  In her role, she led all defense industrial strategy, investments, and planning, including the Defense Production Act and industrial base investments, supply chain resilience, small business programs, international defense industrial cooperation, and economic security and review of domestic mergers and acquisitions and foreign investments (CFIUS).  She led the Department of Defense in developing and publishing the first-ever National Defense Industrial Strategy and Implementation Plan.  During her tenure, she led the expansion of strategic investments in rare earth elements, critical and strategic materials, solid rocket motors, and other upstream supply chain materials.  To further accelerate investment in the Defense Industrial Base, Dr. Taylor-Kale launched the DoD’s largest other transaction contracting vehicle, the Defense Industrial Base Consortium.  During her tenure, she led a record of $3.3 billion of grants to manufacturing and defense industrial supply chain businesses through the Defense Production Act and the Industrial Base Fund.  Additionally, she established the first Board of Directors for the strategic and critical materials for the National Defense Stockpile.

Dr. Taylor-Kale is a policy executive, strategist, and organizational behavior scholar with extensive experience in finance, business, economic policy and managing in complex organizations.  From 2021-2023, she served as the Fellow for Innovation and Economic Competitiveness at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and contributed to CFR’s Renewing America Initiative. Her CFR research focused on strategic innovation, industrial policy, and the changing nature of work. From 2017-2018, she was an International Affairs Fellow at CFR and the deputy director of CFR’s independent task force on the future of the U.S. workforce, co-authoring of the task force’s published report “The Work Ahead: Machines, Skills, and U.S. Leadership in the Twenty-First Century.”

Previously, Dr. Taylor-Kale served in the Obama Administration from 2014-2017. As the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Manufacturing in the International Trade Administration, Dr. Taylor-Kale led multiple teams of international trade specialists and oversaw policies and programs to promote exports of U.S. manufactured goods and economic competitiveness in health and information technology; energy and environmental technologies; and transportation and machinery sectors. Prior to the Department of Commerce, Dr. Taylor-Kale was the senior advisor for policy and operations at the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation where she coordinated policies for OPIC’s $5 billion portfolio of investments in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Taylor-Kale joined the Obama Administration from the World Bank where she was special assistant to the Vice President for sustainable development and climate change.

From 2003-2012, Dr. Taylor-Kale was a career Foreign Service Officer in the U.S. Department of State and served in diplomatic postings in India as a consular officer and special assistant to the ambassador, Côte d’Ivoire as a political affairs officer, Afghanistan as an economic affairs officer, and in Washington, DC in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs as a financial economist. She received multiple awards for her economic analysis and from 2010-2011, was the first Foreign Service Officer to serve as an advisor to the U.S. Executive Director on the boards of the World Bank Group.

Dr. Taylor-Kale holds a B.A. in economics and anthropology from Smith College, an M.P.A. in development economic and demographic studies from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, an M.B.A. in finance and management from the New York University’s Stern School of Business, and a Ph.D. in management science and engineering with a specialization in Organizations, Technology, and Entrepreneurship from Stanford University’s School of Engineering. Her scholarly research examines grand challenges, ecosystem design, and how organizations leverage technology to build cross-sector strategic partnerships. Dr. Taylor-Kale is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is the recipient of numerous educational and professional awards, including the Zhi-Xing Eisenhower Fellowship, International Career Advancement Program, Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship, and the David Boren Scholarship for Critical Language Study. She is a member of the Truman National Security Project and an alumna of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security.

Johnnie Kaberle is a Senior Vice President at WestExec Advisors, where she helps clients navigate the intersection of Congress, the Department of Defense, and the intelligence community.  Prior to joining WestExec, Johnnie spent over three decades on Capitol Hill, culminating as Staff Director of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and Deputy Staff Director of the full Appropriations Committee. In that role, she led bipartisan negotiations and shaped hundreds of billions in national security funding—playing a central role in advancing innovation, acquisition reform, and capability delivery to the warfighter.  Today, Johnnie draws on that deep institutional experience to help clients understand how decisions are made in Washington, identify and pursue strategic opportunities, and build lasting relationships with key stakeholders. She also teaches legislative negotiation and is known for her ability to help clients “decode” complex government processes and deliver impact where it matters most.

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.

Susan Hennessey is a Counsel in WilmerHale’s Defense, National Security, and Government Contracts practice group. In private practice, she focuses on national security, technology and defense-related matters. Previously, Ms. Hennessey served as Chief Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security and Chief of Staff of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division.

In 2022, Ms. Hennessey served as the Director of National Intelligence’s representative on the Senior Steering Group examining the relationship between the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command. She began her legal career as an attorney in the Office of General Counsel at the NSA.

Before joining the Justice Department, Ms. Hennessey was a Senior Fellow of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, where she published influential legal and policy analysis on topics including surveillance law, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies and served as Executive Editor of Lawfare. As a Brookings scholar, she provided nonpartisan expert advice, briefings, and testimony to Congress, senior government officials, non-governmental organizations, business leaders, and other stakeholders.

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.

Nicholas Rasmussen was the Executive Director at Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT). Previously, he was the Senior Director for National Security and Counterterrorism Programs at the McCain Institute for International Leadership. Rasmussen is a national security professional with over twenty-seven years in U.S. government service, including in senior counterterrorism posts at the White House and in the U.S. Intelligence Community from 2001 to 2017. He concluded his government career as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), leading more than 1,000 professionals from across the Intelligence Community, federal government, and federal contractor workforce.

Rasmussen served in senior posts across three administrations, including as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council staff under Presidents Bush and Obama before being appointed Director of NCTC by President Obama and continuing his tenure at the request of President Trump’s administration. From 1991-2001, he served in policy positions at the Department of State, focused on the Middle East.

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.

Nisha Biswal brings over 30 years of experience in U.S. foreign policy and international economic development including in the Executive Branch, in Congress and the private sector. Most recently, she served as Deputy CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), overseeing operations, management and policy coordination, and helping DFC become the largest bilateral development finance institution in the world. Biswal was senior vice president for international strategy and global initiatives at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce from 2017-2023 and led the South Asia practice.

Her prior government service includes Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State from 2013 to 2017. There she oversaw the U.S.-India strategic partnership, including the launch of an annual U.S.-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue. She also initiated the C5+1 Dialogue with Central Asia and the US-Bangladesh Partnership Dialogue during her tenure as Assistant Secretary. Prior to that, Biswal was assistant administrator for Asia at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID),having previously worked in the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and the Bureau for Humanitarian Response. She also spent over a decade on Capitol Hill, working as staff director on the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee on Appropriations as well as professional staff on the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives.

Jeannette Gaudry Haynie, PhD, is a security and conflict scholar, retired Marine Corps officer and combat veteran, and former government senior executive leader. A New Orleans native and U.S. Naval Academy graduate, she is a Cobra attack helicopter pilot by trade who has served both within and outside the government in a wide range of leadership roles. Within the government, she has served on active duty, as a reservist, and in a civilian executive leadership role at the Department of Defense; outside of government, she has served as a principal research scientist, nonprofit executive, and adjunct professor.

Dr. Haynie served on active duty as a Cobra pilot and instructor before transitioning into the reserves and beginning graduate school. While serving on the Joint Staff and in the Marine Corps Commandant’s think tank, she earned her MA in Political Science from the University of New Orleans and her PhD in International Relations from The George Washington University. She retired after 22 years of combined active and reserve service in the Marine corps.

The Honorable Robert M. Scher is a recognized expert in strategic planning, geopolitical risk assessment and mitigation, and government advocacy across the energy and defense sectors and on issues of international, national security, and US domestic politics. He has served in the public sector, worked in the private sector, and was appointed to a congressionally mandated commission by the Senate Majority Leader.

Bob was most recently the Vice President and Head of International Affairs for BP America. In this position he tracked and analyzed US foreign and national security policy as it affected BP’s businesses around the world.

Heather Hurlburt is an Associate Fellow at Chatham House, analyzing, explaining and working to close the gap between the practice of international affairs and the realities of politics in the United States. From 2022-2024, she served as Chief of Staff to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, overseeing strategy and management for the agency charged with carrying out President Biden’s worker-centered American trade policy. Previously, she founded and ran the New Models of Policy Change project at the think tank New America’s Political Reform program. Her work there explored the intersection of international affairs policy and domestic political polarization, on topics from trade and climate to political violence to nuclear security. She also made the project a hub for analysis and convening on diversity, gender and equity in international affairs.

Earlier in her career, she held senior positions in conflict prevention and international affairs advocacy, including at the International Crisis Group and Human Rights First. She was a speechwriter and member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning staff under Secretaries of State Albright and Christopher, and a Special Assistant and speechwriter to President Bill Clinton. She also worked on Capitol Hill and the US Delegation to the OSCE.  She served from 2022-2025 on the U.S. Secretary of State’s International Security Advisory Board. She is widely published, and from 2017-2020 was a regular columnist for New York Magazine’s Daily Intelligencer. She is a member of the board of the Scoville Peace Fellowship, a co-founder of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security, and holds degrees from Brown and George Washington Universities.

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.

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.

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.

Phyllis Wilson is a trailblazing leader, trusted advisor, and nationally recognized voice in purpose-driven leadership. As the 5th Command Chief Warrant Officer of the Army Reserve – the first woman in any component of the U.S. Army to hold the highest warrant officer position – she shaped strategy, culture, and the future of the military. Today, she is the President of the Military Women’s Memorial located at Arlington National Cemetery, which is America’s only major national memorial honoring the more than 3 million women who have defended America, from the American Revolution to today. Phyllis also serves on multiple nonprofit boards and offers her expertise as a national speaker on leadership, security, and workforce transformation.

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.

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.