A Conversation with Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. Kathleen H. Hicks

Please join the Center for Strategic and International Studies for a Smart Women, Smart Power conversation with Dr. Kathleen H. Hicks, Deputy Secretary of Defense. She is the first Senate-confirmed woman in the position. Deputy Secretary Hicks will discuss current global security issues, including Afghanistan and China. In addition, she will discuss her prioritization of innovation in defense, where she is focusing on small businesses, healthcare modernization, climate change, tech, and DEI issues.

Prior to becoming Deputy Secretary, Dr. Hicks held the position of senior vice president, Henry A. Kissinger Chair, and Director of the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where she co-founded the CSIS Smart Women, Smart Power Initiative. From 2009 to 2013, she served as a senior civilian official in the Department of Defense. Confirmed by the United States Senate in 2012 as principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, she was responsible for advising the secretary of defense on global and regional defense policy and strategy. She also served as deputy undersecretary of defense for strategy, plans, and forces, leading the development of the 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance and the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review and crafting guidance for future force capabilities, overseas military posture, and contingency and theater campaign plans.

From 2006 to 2009, Deputy Secretary Hicks was a senior fellow at CSIS. Deputy Secretary Hicks launched her career as a civil servant in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, serving from 1993 to 2006 in a variety of capacities and rising from Presidential Management Intern to the Senior Executive Service.

Deputy Secretary Hicks holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an M.A. from the University of Maryland’s School of Public Affairs, and an A.B. magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Mount Holyoke College.

Event Partners