Center Alumni Tapped to Serve the Nation

Featured in the Fall 2021 Newsletter »

The Belfer Center is proud that more than a dozen of our community members, including Bonnie Jenkins, Eric Lander, Samantha Power, Wendy Sherman, Jake Sullivan, and—pending Senate confirmation—Sasha Baker and Nick Burns, have answered the call to serve in the Biden administration. We’re also pleased that a new generation of leaders who are recent Harvard Kennedy School graduates and Belfer alums are serving important – and in some cases, very senior – roles as well. Meredith Berger, Marcus Comiter, Caitlin Conley, Raina Davis, Jeff Fields, Aditi Kumar, and Aoibhean Thinnes are helping run important projects on industrial policy, AI, law enforcement, and national security.

SASHA BAKER, nominated as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy

Sasha Baker is a former Belfer Center Senior Fellow. At publication time for this newsletter, she is awaiting confirmation as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, after being nominated for the position in August.

Since January, Baker has served as Special Assistant to President Biden and Senior Director for Strategic Planning at the National Security Council (where several Belfer alumni are serving). Previously, Baker worked as a Senior Advisor for Senator Elizabeth Warren and Deputy Policy Director for Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign, where she drafted positions on national security, criminal justice, immigration, and climate policy. Before that, Baker was Deputy Chief of Staff for Secretary of Defense Ash Carter.

BONNIE JENKINS, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security

Bonnie Jenkins is a former Fellow with the Belfer Center’s Project on Managing the Atom and International Security Program. In July 2021, she was confirmed as Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security.

Ambassador Jenkins came to her newest role with eight years of experience as Special Envoy and Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN). She coordinated U.S. efforts on threat reduction globally and U.S. government programs in chemical, biological, nuclear, and radiological (CBRN) security.  For her service as Coordinator of Threat Reduction Programs, Jenkins was the 2016 ISN Nominee for the Secretary’s Award for Excellence in International Security Affairs. 

MEREDITH BERGER, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations & Environment; concurrently serving as the designated official Performing the Duties of the United States Under Secretary of the Navy

Meredith Berger was a Fellow with the Belfer Center’s Defending Digital Democracy Project (D3P). As an original member of the D3P team, her experience in campaigns and elections, national security, and government policy at the local, state, and federal levels contributed to the project’s groundbreaking work on cybersecurity and elections.

Prior to her current post, Berger served as Deputy Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the Navy. She also held positions in the Department of Defense, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Office of the Florida Chief Financial Officer. She worked also with Microsoft’s Defending Democracy Program to help protect against cyber-enabled interference. Berger earned a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from Harvard Kennedy School.

MARCUS COMITER, Chief of the Data Science & Artificial Intelligence Engineering division at the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, U.S. Department of Defense

Marcus Comiter is a former non-resident Fellow with the Belfer Center’s Cyber and China Cyber Policy Projects. Comiter, who received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Harvard University, helped design Harvard’s first courses in blockchain/cryptocurrencies, 5G wireless networking, software defined networking, and the Internet of Things. His previous industry experience includes the Security and Microarchitecture groups at Intel Research Labs, where his work resulted in a patent, and serving as a Fellow at US Ignite, a nonprofit catalyzing the development of next generation network applications.

CAITLIN CONLEY, detailed by the Department of Defense to the National Security Council 

U.S. Army Major and then Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) student Caitlin Conley directed activities for the Belfer Center’s Defending Digital Democracy Project (D3P) during its inaugural year (2017-2018). Conley organized a cross-cutting team of HKS and MIT students and private sector tech, communications, and policy specialists to develop tools for election officials and campaigns to better secure the democratic process from cybersecurity threats and information operations. The team met with secretaries of state and election officials around the U.S. to gather information on vulnerabilities in the election system. She coordinated in-person workshops across the country with “real-time” tabletop exercises and corresponding playbooks that helped officials develop expertise in mitigating threats and applying operational leadership practices focused on keeping the 2020 elections safe.  At the same time, she attended MIT and HKS, completing a Master of Public Policy degree at HKS and receiving her Master of Business Administration from MIT Sloan. Conley, who attended West Point and commissioned as a Military Police Officer, has spent more than a decade in the Department of Defense’s special operations community with multiple deployments to the Middle East and Africa. Now on the National Security Council, Conley serves as a Director for Counterterrorism.  

RAINA DAVIS, Director, Research and Analysis National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence

Raina Davis is a former Belfer International and Global Affairs Student Fellow and a graduate of Harvard Kennedy School. In her current position, she explores how the DoD and broader national security community can better invest in, transition, and scale AI technologies. Previous positions include work as a research coordinator at Columbia University’s Global Center in Amman, Jordan. Davis holds a BA from Stanford University and MPP from Harvard Kennedy School. 

JEFFREY FIELDS, FBI Supervisory Special Agent within the National Security Division

Jeffrey (Jeff) Fields is a former non-resident Fellow with the Cyber and Intelligence Project at the Belfer Center. In his current position with the FBI, he leads an interagency cyber-network operations group. Prior to this post, he worked with global terrorism and human intelligence matters and has deployed to Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa in support of U.S. Special Operations Command’s counterterrorism mission. A graduate of Harvard Kennedy School, Fields has acquired substantial expertise on national security policy and the complex geo-politics of Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.

ADITI KUMAR, Senior Advisor with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment in the Office of Industrial Policy

Prior to her government appointment, Aditi Kumar served as Belfer Center Executive Director and was a member of the Board of Directors. At the Center, she also headed the Economic Diplomacy Initiative. Previously, she was a Principal at Oliver Wyman, a management consultancy, in the financial services and public policy practices. She also served as a project manager at the World Economic Forum, responsible for leading policy discussions among financial sector executives and policymakers. She is a graduate of Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School.

AOIBHEANN THINNES, John S. McCain Strategic Defense Fellow at Office of the Secretary of Defense

Aoibheann Thinnes is serving a one-year fellowship in the Department of Defense where she is working on defense industrial policy and supply chain resilience. As a Master of Public Policy candidate at Harvard Kennedy School, she served as student liaison for the Belfer Center’s Homeland Security and Security and Global Health Projects. She was also co-chair of the student group Women in Defense, Diplomacy, and Development (W3D). Previously, Thinnes was a federal management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton where she delivered strategic and analytical support to federal agencies - including the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice - to help enhance their mission execution.