Executive Board Members

Affiliations are listed for identification purposes only.

• Ms. Laura S. Hayes Holgate, President of Executive Board; Vice President for Russia/NIS, Nuclear Threat Initiative
• Ms. Linda Staheli, Vice President of Executive Board; Senior Staff Associate, Congressional Relations, U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation
• Dr. Deborah Avant, Director, Institute for Global and International Studies, George Washington University
• Ms. Nancy Bearg, Senior Advisor, Search for Common Ground
• Dr. Nora Bensahel, Senior Political Scientist, RAND Corporation
• Ms. Naila Bolus, Executive Director, Ploughshares Fund
• Capt. Diane Carnevale, U.S. Navy (Retired); Director for Administration and Operations, Base and Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC)
• Dr. Martha Crenshaw, John E. Andrus Professor of Government, Wesleyan University
• Ms. Michèle A. Flournoy, President, Center for a New American Security
• Ms. Melanie Greenberg, President, Cypress Fund for Peace and Security
• Dr. Virginia A. Haufler, Associate Professor, Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland, College Park
  
• Ms. Eileen Isola, Lieutenant Colonel, US Air Force (Retired); Program Manager and Senior Defense Analyst, SAIC, Inc.
  
• Ms. Lorelei Kelly, Policy Director, Real Security Initiative, White House Project 
• Maj. Gen. Tiiu Kera, Major General, USAF (Retired); Senior Associate, Center for Strategic and International Studies
• Dr. Carol Lancaster, Director, Mortara Center for International Studies, Edmund A. Walsh School of School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
• Dr. Deepa M. Ollapally, Senior Fellow, Sigur Center for Asian Studies, George Washington University
• Ms. Subhasri Ramanathan, Senior Analyst with the Government Accountability Office's Homeland Security and Justice team
• Ms. Tara Sonenshine, Advisor, U.S. Institute of Peace
• Dr. Joanna Spear, Director of the Security Policy Program and Acting Director of the Foreign Policy Institute, George Washington University
• Prof. Ruth Wedgwood, Edward B. Burling Professor of International Law and Diplomacy and Director of the International Law and Organization Program, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University
  

Executive Board Member Biographies

Deborah Avant is Director of the Institute for Global and International Studies at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. Her research has focused on civil-military relations and military change. She has written extensively on the US military -- examining its historical evolution, its reaction to counterinsurgency in Vietnam and its attitudes toward post-Cold War missions. Most recently she has focused on the global trend toward privatizing security. She is the author of The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and Political Institutions and Military Change: Lessons from Peripheral Wars (Cornell University Press, 1994). Dr. Avant holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego. As a member of the WIIS Executive Board, she has served on the Events Committee and the Professional Meetings Committee; she co-chaired the McCormick Conference Committee and the "Future of WIIS" Committee; and she has served as Chair of the Summer Symposium Committee. Back to the top

Nancy Bearg is a Senior Advisor at Search for Common Ground. Previously, she was the President & CEO of EnterpriseWorks Worldwide (EWW), a nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, DC that fights global poverty through self-help economic development programs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Ms. Bearg previously served as Assistant to the Vice President of the United States for National Security; National Security Council Director for International Programs and Public Diplomacy; and Director of the International Peace, Security and Prosperity Program at The Aspen Institute, where she focused on conflict prevention and poverty. She has held staff positions on the Senate Armed Services Committee and in the Congressional Budget Office and Defense Department. Ms. Bearg is the editor of five books published by The Aspen Institute, including three on global poverty and two on conflict management and prevention, in addition to several publications on tactical air forces and peacekeeping operations. She holds a bachelor's degree from Willamette University and a master's degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. As a member of the WIIS Executive Board, she has served on the Fundraising Committee and on the Events Committee. Back to the top

Nora Bensahel is a Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation, specializing in military strategy and doctrine. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Security Studies Program at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. Her recent work has examined stability operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, post-conflict reconstruction, military coalitions, and multilateral intervention. Her latest publications include The Counterterror Coalitions: Cooperation with Europe, NATO, and the European Union and The Future Security Environment in the Middle East. She has held fellowships at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, and the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University and frequently appears as a commentator in the news media. Back to the top

Naila Bolus is the Executive Director of Ploughshares Fund, a San Francisco-based public foundation whose purpose is to provide financial resources to organizations working to stop the spread and use of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and to prevent conflicts that could lead to the use of WMD. As Executive Director, Ms. Bolus is responsible for the strategic direction of the foundation, overseeing the grantmaking program, interfacing with the trustees and securing annual operating funds. Ms. Bolus moved to San Francisco from Washington, DC, where she spent eight years in the non-governmental advocacy community. Prior to the Ploughshares Fund, she served as Director of 20/20 Vision, a national grassroots lobby that works to promote security and protect the environment. Ms. Bolus helped found and served as the Political Director for WiLL, The Women Legislators’ Lobby, where she recruited one third of all women state legislators to lobby for human services, environmental protection and security. She also served as Legislative Director for Women’s Action for New Directions and lobbied Congress on a range of security and women’s issues. She served as director of WAND PAC and as WAND’s Field Director, organizing and training local grassroots leaders; and has been involved in several local, congressional and presidential election campaigns. Ms. Bolus has published numerous articles and op-eds in major magazines and newspapers, has appeared as a guest on local, regional and nationally syndicated talk radio shows, and has conducted interviews with television and video programs. Ms. Bolus graduated from Tufts University in 1987 with a degree in International Relations. She earned a Certificate of Political Studies from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris, France. Back to the top

Diane Carnevale is Director for Administration and Operations, Base and Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC). She recently retired as Captain in the U.S. Navy and is also Vice President of MSHIPCO. She previously served as Director of the Plans and Policy Department and Director of Operations of the Navy Headquarters Recruiting Command as well as on the personnel staff of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington, DC. She is experienced in strategic planning and recruitment and has held command. She spearheaded the 1990 Navy Arms Control Report to Congress and published an article in Johns Hopkins University's journal, The SAIS Review (Summer 2000). Captain Carnevale is a recipient of several honors and awards, including the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal, and the Navy Commendation Medal. She is a member of the Inter-American Defense Board. She holds a Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) degree from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. As a member of the WIIS Executive Board, she has served on the Executive Council; chaired the Membership Committee; served on the Events Committee, the Gala Committee, and the Executive Director Search Committee; and spearheaded the publication of the first WIIS Member Directory. Back to the top

Martha Crenshaw is the Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor of Global Issues and Democratic Thought and Professor of Government at Wesleyan University, where she has taught international politics and foreign policy since 1974. A leading expert on terrorism, she was one of the first scholars to publish on terrorism with her case study of the FLN in the Algerian war, Revolutionary Terrorism: The FLN in Algeria, 1954-1962 (Hoover Institution Press, 1978). Dr. Crenshaw has written numerous books and articles on the problems of terrorism and political violence and is the editor of Terrorism in Context (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995). Dr. Crenshaw holds a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. As a member of the WIIS Executive Board, she has chaired the Professional Meetings Committee and organized and spoken on a number of WIIS panels. Back to the top

Michèle Flournoy was appointed President of the Center for a New American Security in January 2007, a venture dedicated to advancing a strong, centrist national security strategy. Prior to co-founding CNAS, she was a Senior Adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where she worked on a broad range of defense policy and international security issues. Previously, she was a distinguished research professor at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University (NDU), where she founded and led the university’s Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) working group, which was chartered by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to develop intellectual capital in preparation for the Department of Defense’s 2001 QDR. Prior to joining NDU, she was dual-hatted as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and threat reduction and deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy. In that capacity, she oversaw three policy offices in the Office of the Secretary of Defense: Strategy; Requirements, Plans, and Counterproliferation; and Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasian Affairs. Ms. Flournoy was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service in 1996, the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service in 1998, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award in 2000. In addition to several edited volumes and reports, she has authored dozens of articles on international security issues. Ms. Flournoy holds a B.A. in social studies from Harvard University and an M.Litt. in international relations from Balliol College, Oxford University, where she was a Newton-Tatum scholar. She is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, and the Executive Board of Women in International Security. She is a former member of the Defense Policy Board and the Defense Science Board Task Force on Transformation. Back to the top

Melanie Greenberg is President of the Cypress Fund for Peace and Stability. Previously, she was a visiting scholar at the School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University and the Director of the Conflict Resolution Program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, Ms. Greenberg was the Associate Director of the Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation, and Deputy Director of the Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation. In her work on international conflict resolution, Ms. Greenberg has helped design and facilitate public peace processes in the Middle East, the Caucasus and Northern Ireland. She has taught courses in international conflict resolution, multi-party conflict resolution and negotiation at Stanford Law School and Georgetown Law Center, and she was lead editor and chapter author of the volume Words over War: Mediation and Arbitration to Prevent Deadly Conflict (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000). Ms. Greenberg chairs the board of the Alliance for International Conflict Prevention and Resolution, and serves on the board of Lawyers Alliance for World Security. She is also on the editorial boards of Dispute Resolution Magazine and the Peace and Conflict Studies Journal. She holds an AB from Harvard and a JD from Stanford Law School. Back to the top

Eileen Isola is a Program Manager and Senior Defense Analyst at SAIC, Inc. Prior to joining SAIC, Eileen was a member of the initial cadre that stood up US Northern Command serving as a Deputy Chief for the USNORTHCOM Battlestaff, Executive Officer, and Division Chief for both the Capabilities-Requirements and the Program Analysis & Evaluation divisions within the J8. A command pilot with over 3,000 hours, including 14 combat missions, she held various operational, staff and command positions, and was the first Air Force woman to serve as an Advance Agent for the President serving with Presidents Bush (41) and Clinton. While on active duty, she also served as the President and Chair of the Board of Women Military Aviators, a non-profit of over 800 members dedicated to promoting and preserving for historical, educational and literary purposes the role of women pilots, navigators, and aircrew members in the service of their country during times of war and peace. Since joining SAIC in 2005, Eileen has been part of the leading edge team delivering scientific, engineering and operational analysis through the development and use of innovative methodologies, tools, models and simulations addressing the most challenging needs and problems of Combatant Commands, Services, Agencies, Allies, and our other defense and security partners. Eileen received her bachelor’s degree in Management from the US Air Force Academy in 1985, a master’s in Electrical Engineering from St Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas, in 1993, a master’s in Strategic Studies from Air University in 2002, and is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College in 1997. She is also Adjunct Faculty for the University of Colorado’s graduate Homeland Security program and the Mountain State University Strategic Leadership program. The author of several papers on humanitarian emergencies and leadership, Eileen is a certified Instructional System Developer and a small arms marksmanship expert. Back to the top

Virginia A. Haufler is an Associate Professor in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is currently developing a project on the movement to involve the private sector in conflict prevention activities. She is author of A Public Role for the Private Sector: Industry Self-Regulation in the Global Economy (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2001). She has also published on the emergence of private international regimes, the changing nature of global governance, and the role of business in world politics. She is affiliated with the Harrison Program on the Future Global Agenda, and the Center for International Development and Conflict Management at the University of Maryland. She has served as Vice President and Treasurer of WIIS, and as a member of the Summer Symposium Committee, the Professional Meetings Committee, and the 15th Anniversary Gala Committee. She also co-chaired the "Future of WIIS" Committee and sat on the Executive Director Search Committee. Back to the top

Laura S. Hayes Holgate (President of WIIS) is Vice President for Russia/Newly Independent States Programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a non-governmental organization dedicated to reducing the global threat from nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. She is responsible for designing and executing action-oriented projects to secure and eliminate nuclear material and develop novel approaches to increasing the resources and efficiency of international threat reduction assistance. Prior to this position, she directed the Department of Energy's Fissile Materials Disposition office, which disposes of uranium and plutonium from dismantled U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons, and served as Special Coordinator for Cooperative Threat Reduction at the Department of Defense, where she oversaw policy for the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Nunn-Lugar program. She has served as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy; on the Clinton Transition Team at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA); and as Special Assistant to the Acting Director of ACDA. As a member of the WIIS Executive Board, Ms. Holgate has helped with fundraising and events, including organizing and speaking at policy forums. Back to the top

Lorelei Kelly is the Policy Director of the Real Security Initiative at the White House Project. Previously, she served as a Senior Associate at the Henry L. Stimson Center and Special Projects Fellow in the Office of Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey of California. In 1998 she founded Security for a New Century, a bipartisan study group on Capitol Hill, which aims to help fill the void in policy education left by the dismantled Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus, and covers a broadly defined concept of security, from peacekeeping to terrorism, cyberthreats to nuclear non-proliferation. Ms. Kelly came to Washington, DC in 1997 from Stanford University's Center on Conflict and Negotiation; she taught peace studies at Stanford University and a course on peacekeeping and conflict prevention at the Stanford-in-Washington Program. Previously, she spent a year as a Thomas J. Watson Fellow studying women's involvement in arms control and disarmament in Europe, was trained in international civilian peacekeeping in Austria (1994), and was an American team member of a public peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan (1996). She holds a B.A. from Grinnell College and an M.A. from Stanford University. Back to the top

Tiiu Kera is a Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) since February 2002, working on domestic and internal issues related to the independence of countries of the former Soviet Union. Maj. Gen. Kera served for 28 years in the U.S. Air Force. Her final active duty position was Deputy Chief, Central Security Service, National Security Agency (NSA) at Ft. Meade, Maryland. Previously, she served as Director of Intelligence, U.S. Strategic Command. Earlier assignments included Tactical Air Command, Headquarters USAF on security issues in the former Warsaw Pact and development of military-to-military relationships with those countries; Joint Staff as a strategic planner; and Fellow at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs, where she lectured on national military strategy development. She was the first U.S. defense attaché resident in Lithuania. Maj. Gen. Kera holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Valparaiso University and Indiana University, and she graduated from the National War College. Back to the top

Carol Lancaster is Director of the Mortara Center for International Studies and Associate Professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown. Current research: foreign aid; development and democracy in Africa; and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) as political organizations. Dr. Lancaster was the Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development from 1993 to 1996. Worked at the U.S. State Department as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (1980-81) and for the Policy Planning Staff (1977-80). She has been a Congressional Fellow and a Carnegie Scholar, worked for the Office of Management and Budget, and has been a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for International Economics and Overseas Development Council. Dr. Lancaster often speaks on USAID and international development. Her most recent books are Aid to Africa: So Much to Do, So Little Done, Transforming Foreign Aid, and Organizing US Foreign Aid: Confronting the Challenges of the 21st Century. In July 2004, she was appointed to the UN Secretary-General's Advisory Panel on International Support for the New Partnership for Africa's Development. Dr. Lancaster holds a Ph.D. (1972) from the London School of Economics. Back to the top

Deepa M. Ollapally is Senior Fellow at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at George Washington University. Previously, she was a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania, and a South Asia specialist at the U.S. Institute of Peace, focusing on South Asian security issues. She taught in the Political Science Department at Swarthmore College from 1991-96. Following that, she set up a program in international studies at one of India's leading think tanks, the National Institute of Advanced Studies, where she was Fellow and Head of the International and Strategic Studies Program. Under a Ford Foundation grant in 1998, she established the first regional network of South Asian Women in International Security as a forum for research and collaboration, and an avenue for track-two diplomacy. Dr. Ollapally is author of Confronting Conflict: Domestic Factors and U.S. Policymaking in the Third World (1993) and numerous journal articles for Foreign Affairs, Political Science Quarterly, Current History, Asian Affairs, and other publications. She received her Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University. Back to the top

Sue Ramanathan is a Senior Analyst with the Government Accountability Office's Homeland Security and Justice team. Prior to joining the GAO, she was Chief Counsel and Deputy Staff Director to the Democratic Staff of the House Committee on Homeland Security in the 109th Congress. In that capacity, she directed, supervised and managed the legislative and oversight activities of the committee staff. Ms. Ramanathan also served as Counsel & Professional Staff on the Select Committee on Homeland Security in the 108th Congress. Her areas of expertise included border security, visa and immigration policy issues. Previously, Ms. Ramanathan served as Senior Policy Advisor and Counsel to Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, focusing on matters before the Judiciary Committee. Ms. Ramanathan holds a B.A. in political science from Rutgers College (1991), J.D. from Rutgers School of Law (1994) and LL.M. in international and comparative law from Georgetown University Law Center (2002). Back to the top

Tara Sonenshine is an advisor at the U.S. Institute of Peace, focusing on projects related to programmatic outreach and growth. Before joining the Institute, she served as special adviser to National Security Advisor Samuel "Sandy" Berger. She has served in various White House capacities, including transition director for the National Security Council (NSC). In that position, she was responsible for coordinating an interagency process to review foreign policy goals and priorities for the Clinton administration's second term. Before that, she served as special assistant to President Clinton and deputy director of communications for the NSC (1994–95). In 1998, Sonenshine was at the Brookings Institution studying foreign policy and communications. Her career began in broadcast journalism in 1982 at ABC News in New York, where she served as assistant to the vice president of news. Sonenshine went on to become editorial producer of ABC News' Nightline, where she worked for more than a decade. She was also an off-air reporter at the Pentagon for ABC's World News Tonight. During her tenure at ABC News, Sonenshine earned ten News Emmy Awards for coverage of China, Iran, the Philippines, and South Africa. She also won the Columbia-DuPont Award for coverage of the Los Angeles riots. A former contributing editor for Newsweek, Sonenshine is the author of numerous articles on foreign affairs published in New York Times, Washington Post, and other newspapers. She holds a B.A. in political science from Tufts University. Back to the top

Joanna Spear is the Director of the Security Policy Program and Acting Director of the Foreign Policy Institute at George Washington University. Before that she was Senior Lecturer and Director of the Graduate Research Program in the Department of War Studies, King’s College, London. She has taught at the University of Sheffield, York University, and Birmingham University. She has been a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Science in International Affairs at Harvard and a Visiting Scholar at the Brookings Institution. Her publications include the forthcoming book, The Changing Political Economy of the Defense Trade. She has published widely in academic and non-academic venues on U.S. arms sales policies, U.S. counter-proliferation policies, transatlantic relations, and post-conflict reconstruction. She serves on the Board of BASIC and has written reports for the United Nations Foundation for the UN Secretary-General’s High Level Panel. She recently completed a report on private military forces in Sierra Leone for the FAFO Institute in Oslo and also consulted for the Government of Japan. She has been interviewed on VOA and provided information to the British House of Commons on arms sales issues. Dr. Spear holds a Ph.D. from Southampton University, UK. Back to the top

Linda Staheli (Vice President of WIIS) is Senior Staff Associate, Congressional Relations, U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF), a federally funded organization which specializes in international science collaborations, especially programs that re-direct the focus and work of former weapons scientists in the former Soviet Union. Her career has spanned 25 years, focusing initially on arms control and national security and more recently on international science and technology policy. From 1998 to 2002, she had her own consulting firm. Clients included the RAND Corporation. From 1995 to 1998, Ms. Staheli directed the National Institutes of Health’s Division of International Relations at the Fogarty International Center, managing a group of professionals responsible for coordinating and developing international biomedical collaborations working with the twenty-four NIH institutes. From1993 to 1995, she managed international relations for the President’s Science Advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and previously she worked at the State Department negotiating and implementing S&T agreements with Japan and Korea and managing a Joint S&T Fund for the countries of Central Europe. Before that, she was a lobbyist for the Council for a Livable World and in 1987 she helped establish WIIS as a Macarthur Fellow. Ms. Staheli holds a B.A. in International Studies from the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington and a master’s degree in Public Management from the School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland. Back to the top

Ruth Wedgwood is the Edward B. Burling Professor of International Law and Diplomacy and the Director of the International Law and Organization Program at SAIS, Johns Hopkins University. Prof. Wedgwood is a member of the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee for International Law, the Defense Policy Board of the Department of Defense, the C.I.A. Historical Review Panel, and the National Security Study Group of the Hart-Rudman Commission on National Security in the 21st Century. She is also U.S. member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee; chairman of the research committee for the American Society of International Law; adviser to the U.S. Department of Defense on international law issues arising from 9/11; senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations; independent expert for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; former Charles Stockton Professor of International Law at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I.; former director of studies at the Hague Academy for International Law in the Netherlands; and former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York. Prof. Wedgwood also serves on the board of editors for the American Journal of International Law and the board of directors for Freedom House. Early in her career, she served as Supreme Court law clerk and executive editor of the Yale Law Journal. Prof. Wedgwood is currently a commentator for BBC, NPR, CNN and MSNBC, and she holds a J.D. from Yale University. Back to the top