Kathleen Hicks (PhD 2010) nominated by President-Elect Biden to be Deputy Secretary of Defense
Kathleen Hicks (PhD 2010) has been nominated by President-Elect Biden to be number two at the Pentagon, or Deputy Secretary of Defense.
SSP alum Kathleen Hicks (PhD 2010) has been nominated by President-Elect Biden to be number two at the Pentagon, or Deputy Secretary of Defense.
WASHINGTON – Today, President-elect Joe Biden announced his nomination of Dr. Kathleen Hicks as the Deputy Secretary of Defense and Dr. Colin Kahl as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Kathleen Hicks and Colin Kahl are respected and trusted advisors to the president-elect with decades of combined experience in national security and keeping Americans safe at the highest levels of government, including within the Department of Defense.
From the press release:
Dr. Kathleen Hicks is the Senior Vice President and Director of the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. A trusted advisor to President-elect Joe Biden with decades of national security and foreign policy experience, Dr. Hicks currently leads the Biden-Harris Transition’s Defense Agency Review Team to ensure the Department of Defense is ready on day one to keep American families safe and secure.
During the Obama-Biden Administration, she served as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans, and Forces and was confirmed by the Senate to serve as Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. She was a career civil servant in the Pentagon for more than a decade, where she rose through the ranks from Presidential Management Intern to the Senior Executive Service. She is the recipient of distinguished service awards from three Secretaries of Defense and a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and received the DOD Senior Professional Women’s Association Excellence in Leadership Award.
Dr. Hicks is a Donald Marron Scholar at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She graduated magna cum laude from Mount Holyoke College, and earned a master’s degree and PhD from the University of Maryland and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively.