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Elizabeth D. Sherwood-Randall

Senior Fellow

Dr. Liz Sherwood-Randall served in the West Wing as Assistant to the President, Homeland Security Advisor, and Deputy National Security Advisor from January 2021 through January 2025. In this role, she spearheaded Federal crisis management for a wide range of challenges -- including terrorist attacks, mass shootings, extreme weather events, and critical infrastructure disruptions -- and she led efforts to strengthen national preparedness for and resilience to future threats. She launched and led multiple initiatives to counter international and domestic terrorism. She innovated new 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 campaign to disrupt the synthetic opioid supply chain, mobilizing novel counter-fentanyl cooperation with Mexico, Canada, and China, and establishing a global coalition of more than 80 partner countries. She oversaw development and implementation of a multinational strategy to reduce unprecedented regional migratory flows and pursued innovation in multiple domestic resettlement efforts, including for Afghans and Ukrainians. She coordinated Federal support to State and local officials in protecting the 2022 and 2024 elections from foreign interference and physical and cyber threats.


During the Obama Administration, Liz served in three 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 the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia (1994-1996). At the outset of her career, she served as Chief Foreign Affairs and Defense Policy Advisor to then-Senator Joe Biden.


A Harvard College graduate who watched the first Kennedy School building being built from her Eliot House bedroom window in 1978-79, Liz has worked at the Kennedy School several times, including as a Founding Principal with Ash Carter and Bill Perry of the Harvard-Stanford Preventive Defense Project and as Associate Director of the Strengthening Democratic Institutions Project with Graham Allison.

Asia & the Pacific Biotechnology China & security China's Nuclear Issues Climate Agreements Conflict & Conflict Resolution Crisis management Electricity Emergency response Energy Energy Conservation Energy Innovation Policy Environment & Climate Change Europe European studies History Homeland security India's Energy Policy India's Nuclear Program Information Technology Infrastructure Technology Innovation Systems Intelligence International Cooperation International Relations Iran's Nuclear Program Military policy NATO Negotiation Non-lethal Weapons North America North Korea Nuclear Program Nuclear Issues Nuclear Proliferation Nuclear Security Nuclear Terrorism Nuclear Waste Nuclear Weapons Nuclear power Oil Oil & Energy Prices Pakistan Nuclear Program Preventive Defense Renewable Energy Russia nuclear program Science & Technology South Asia Space security Sustainable Development U.S. Energy Policy U.S. Foreign Policy U.S. Nuclear Issues Weapons of Mass Destruction

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Impacts of the U.S. Killing of Qassem Soleimani

by Matthew Bunn, Morgan L. Kaplan, Elizabeth D. Sherwood-Randall, Joseph L. Votel, Tarek Masoud, Vincent K. Brooks, Gary Samore, Martin B. Malin, William H. Tobey, Wendy R. Sherman, Paula J. Dobriansky and Rami Khouri
Article
from Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
In this Sept. 18, 2016 photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, center, attends a meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Revolutionary Guard commanders in Tehran, Iran.

Impacts of U.S. Troop Withdrawal from Syria

by Ash Carter, Nicholas Burns, Rami Khouri, Elizabeth D. Sherwood-Randall, Morgan L. Kaplan, Stephen M. Walt, John Holland-McCowan, Dr. Amanda Sloat, Wendy R. Sherman and Eric Rosenbach
Article
from Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
A fighter from the Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF, stands inside a post where U.S. troops were based, in Tel Abyad town, at the Syrian-Turkish border, Syria, Monday, Oct. 7, 2019.