Aditi Kumar is Executive Director of the Belfer Center. Prior to coming to the Belfer Center, Kumar was a Principal at Oliver Wyman, a management consultancy, in the financial services and public policy practices. She worked primarily with U.S. commercial and investment banks as well as U.S. regulators and policymakers on designing and implementing financial and economic policy. Kumar previously served as a project manager at the World Economic Forum, responsible for leading policy discussions among financial sector executives and policymakers on managing financial risk and designing effective global financial regulation. Kumar is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Business School, where she studied international affairs, and specifically the nexus of national security and financial and economic policy. She previously worked at the International Affairs office of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, focused on assessing the public debt sustainability of Eastern European nations. She graduated from the Huntsman Program for International Studies and Business at the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies.
Bernadette Schoukroun's career spans more than 32 years where she served in the military and as a federal civilian. After graduating from Marywood College with a Bachelor's degree, she joined the Air Force and was stationed at the United States Air Forces Europe (USAFE), Ramstein, Germany. As a USAF photographer, she captured photographic evidence that supported AFOSI investigations, crime scenes, military exercises, and aircraft incidents. Ms. Schoukroun also served at the White House Communications Agency during two administrations, President Reagan and President George H.W. Bush. After five years of military service, she transitioned to a civilian position in the Department of Defense as a photographer and instructor for the Defense Attaché School preparing military officers and enlisted members for embassy assignments. She also worked at the Joint Intelligence Virtual University as an educational technologist and established the first federal virtual university. During this time, Ms. Schoukroun also completed her Master's degree in educational technology leadership at George Washington University. Ms. Schoukroun's expertise in online learning and adult education enabled her to join the National Cryptologic School, where she helped launch online platforms and real- time educational tools that transformed learning. Ms. Schoukroun embraced new challenges in business technology and systems engineering to become the Chief of the Business IT and Requirements division supporting new systems development in the area of business, education, and logistics operations. She also obtained a Master’s certification in Systems Security Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology prior to assuming her current position as Deputy Chief of the Department of Defense Security Engineering organization. She directs a team of security engineers who conducted over 60 security assessments for the DOD and federal agencies to secure critical national infrastructure assets. As a Harvard Fellow, her research will focus on an endemic DOD business problem "How and why are we failing to protect critical national assets?"
Brooke Carr is a research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center, working on the Intelligence Project. Carr joined the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2006, after separating from USAF active-duty. She received her B.A. from the USAF Academy in 2002, an M.A. from Boston University in 2005, and completed National Defense University's Postgraduate Strategic Intelligence Program in 2008. Carr remains a USAF reservist, serving as an Air Force Office of Special Investigations commander, and completed Air Command and Staff College in 2015.
Russ Porter is currently a U.S. Intelligence Community senior executive. Most of his career was dedicated to the state and local law enforcement intelligence discipline. His leadership helped transform the post-9/11 domestic security, information sharing, and intelligence landscape while championing privacy, civil liberties, and civil rights protections. Russ possesses a Master of Public Administration degree, and completed all coursework and comprehensive exams toward the Ph.D. His research focuses on intelligence integration where international, national, and domestic security issues intersect.
Lieutenant Colonel William Putnam is a US Army Military Intelligence (MI) Officer who recently was the Commander of the 321st MI BN (Expeditionary). His previous assignments include Deputy Commander of the 470th MI BDE (Theater Support); the G2 at the US Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command; Executive Officer of the Theater Intelligence Group, Combined Joint Task Force 435 in Afghanistan; and Executive Officer of the 338th MI BN (Interrogation). LTC Putnam has deployed to Kosovo, Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan as both a soldier and a civilian contractor. He holds a bachelor of arts in political science from Tulane University and a masters in science in international relations from the London School of Economics. Research interests include strategic decision making and US foreign policy with an emphasis on China.
