Kiron K. Skinner

Kiron K. Skinner, Ph.D., served as Director of Policy Planning and Senior Adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the U.S. Department of State from 2018 to 2019.  In that capacity, she provided long-term, high-level guidance to the Secretary, reengaged the Department in red-team exercises on regional conflicts, developed State-Defense ties in critical areas, and fostered transatlantic partnerships through numerous strategic dialogues, including the first-ever NATO Policy Planners Summit.  She played a central role in creating the Commission on Unalienable Rights and re-chartering the Foreign Affairs Policy Board, and served in the Secretariat of both entities.

Skinner’s public service also include membership on the U.S. Defense Department’s Defense Policy Board (2001–07 and 2017-18); the Eisenhower Commission’s Legacy Committee of historians (2002-03); the Chief of Naval Operations’ (CNO) Executive Panel (2004–2015); the National Academies’ Committee on Behavioral and Social Science Research (2009–11); and the National Security Education Board (2004–11).  She was also appointed to the advisory board of the George W. Bush Oral History Project.

After her most recent government service, Skinner returned to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) as the Taube Professor of International Relations and Politics and Director of the Institute of Politics and Strategy.  She also resumed the directorship of the Carnegie Mellon University’s Washington Semester Program, the Center for International Relations and Politics, and the Institute for Strategic Analysis.  In addition, Skinner is a Distinguished Fellow at CyLab, a cyber-oriented research center associated with the College of Engineering, and holds courtesy faculty positions at CMU’s Heinz College and the Institute for Software Research.  She is a member of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) faculty community at CMU.

Skinner is also the W. Glenn Campbell Research Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, and a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy and senior advisor to the President.  Her work at Heritage focuses on analyzing the impact of cutting-edge technology—including AI, quantum science, and a host of other breakthroughs—on foreign policy and national security.

She is the author or editor of seven books, two of which (Reagan, In His Own Hand and Reagan, A Life in Letters) were New York Times best sellers.  She is the editor of a new Palgrave MacMillan series on American political ideology.  Skinner is a lifetime director on the board of the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C., and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City and the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles.  She holds MA and Ph.D. degrees in political science from Harvard University and undergraduate degrees from Spelman College and Sacramento City College.  She has an honorary doctor of law degree from Molloy College, Long Island.