Strategy and Statecraft Fellowship

2022 Fellows

Samantha Smith Atkinson is the Staff Director of Global Public Policy for FedEx Corporation in Washington D.C. In her role at FedEx, she is responsible for global alignment on policy issues including trade, aviation, corporate tax, innovation, sustainability, corporate social responsibility, regional investments, as well as executive public policy events and policy research. Sam also works with third-party policy groups to advance FedEx’s policy priorities at the local, state, federal and international level. Before joining FedEx, she was the communications director for Governor Chris Christie's 2016 presidential campaign. From 2011 to 2015, Sam was a manager of global communications and public affairs for Google in Washington D.C. where she worked on reporter engagement and public affairs strategies for issues such as competition, corporate tax, innovation, and controversial content. Prior to Google, she worked for Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina as his press secretary in the U.S. Senate and communications director for his 2010 re-election campaign based out of Winston-Salem, N.C. Sam got started her career in Washington D.C. working as a communications coordinator for Senator John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. A proud Tar Heel, Sam graduated from the University of North Carolina with degrees in Communications and Political Science in 2008, and currently serves on the UNC Next Generation Advisory Committee. She is also active in the D.C. community volunteering and fundraising for several organizations including St. Jude, No Kid Hungry, and Warrior Canine Connection. She lives in Washington D.C. with her husband, Bubba Atkinson, and daughter, Lucy Atkinson (2).

Beatrice Bienvenu is the Executive Advisor for Government Affairs at Chevron Corporation in Washington, DC. In this role, she serves as Chief of Staff for the Vice President of Government Affairs and leads a team that tracks Federal and International policies to understand their business impact. She also coordinates responses to issues and corporate initiatives and manages Executive visits to Washington. Beatrice started her career at Chevron 10 years ago and has held a variety of technical geophysics roles, including working in Chevron’s technical center as a seismic specialist, in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico drilling exploration wells and appraising discovered resources to assess commerciality, and in the Permian Basin to optimize the drilling of horizontal development wells. Most recently, she was the International Exploration Advisor, where she directly supported the General Manager of International Exploration to manage the exploration strategy, portfolio, business planning, activity execution tracking, and financial reporting of a multi-hundred-million-dollar exploration budget over 11 countries. Beatrice graduated from MIT with a BS in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Management Science in 2011 and an MS in Geophysics in 2012. She and her husband Brandon live in Houston, TX. A Chevy Chase, MD native, she is happy to be back in the DC area temporarily for her current role with Chevron. Beatrice enjoys volunteering with a variety of community organizations through the Junior League and is a regular judge for regional science fairs.

Pablo Chavez is a technology policy expert who most recently served as a vice president at Google until February of this year. In that role, Pablo was responsible for Google Cloud’s global public policy and government relations work, led an international team of policy professionals addressing critical issues like digital sovereignty and cybersecurity, and worked closely with Google Cloud’s business, product, and engineering teams on the development and deployment of policy-sensitive cloud products, technical infrastructure, and business transactions. Prior to rejoining Google in 2018, Pablo served as Microsoft’s General Manager for US Public Policy after Microsoft acquired LinkedIn in 2016. During that time, Pablo was also responsible for LinkedIn's public policy and government affairs initiatives and its workforce-focused policy research and engagement programs. Before taking on his combined Microsoft-LinkedIn role, from 2014 to 2018 Pablo was LinkedIn's Vice President of Global Public Policy and Government Affairs. In that role, he launched the company’s public policy team and LinkedIn’s public policy-focused workforce and future of work research and partnership program. At LinkedIn, Pablo was part of the team responsible for launching LinkedIn’s China product. Before joining LinkedIn, Pablo was a Senior Director of Public Policy with Google where he held several leadership roles in public policy and developed expertise in privacy and security, intellectual property, content regulation, competition, engagement with China, and other key issue areas, including international trade and market access issues relevant to the digital economy. Before joining Google, Pablo served as a Senior Counsel for the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation under Senator John McCain’s chairmanship and as Chief Counsel to Senator John McCain. As counsel to the Committee, Pablo advised Chairman McCain and other Committee members on the Committee’s issues, including corporate governance, Internet regulation and taxation, and consumer protection matters. As counsel to Senator McCain, Pablo worked on a broad range of issues, including technology policy, financial services regulations, and CFIUS reform. Pablo currently serves on the advisory boards of the Princeton University Center for Information Technology Policy and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. He received his law degree from Stanford Law School and his bachelor's degree from Princeton University.

Angela L. Cheng is manager, Joint All-Domain Command and Control Demonstrations and Experiments, Business Development, Defense, Space & Security. Cheng leads a team responsible for live, virtual and constructive experiments conducted in support of the U.S Department of Defense Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) joint warfighting concept. In her previous roles at Boeing, she led and supported several major strategic efforts, including multi-million dollar projects related to Boeing’s Virtual Warfare Center, Boeing’s future production systems strategy and a planned joint venture with Brazilian aerospace company Embraer. Prior to her time at Boeing, Cheng spent five years supporting the Office of the Secretary of Defense/Net Assessment designing and conducting war games and studies assessing long-term strategic and military competitions between the United States and its peer and near-peer adversaries. She focused primarily on military applications of the space domain, with secondary responsibilities pertaining to the study of nuclear proliferation, next generation nuclear weapons design and protracted warfare. Cheng received her Master of Arts in security studies and her Bachelor of Science in foreign service from Georgetown University.

Sean M. Doherty is Senior Public Policy Analyst at Bank of America, one of the world’s leading financial institutions. In this role, he spearheads research and analysis of the full spectrum of global and domestic policy issues to help advise the company’s CEO, Management Team, and Head of Public Policy. He previously served as Director of Intelligence & Analysis in Bank of America’s corporate security division, helping build an analytic program to identify threats to employees, facilities, and brand/reputation. Prior to joining Bank of America, Sean was an analyst at CIA (1999-2011), where he was a member the Senior Analytic Service (SAS), the cadre of CIA’s most senior analytic experts. Earlier, he served at the Treasury Department and as a research analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a master’s degree in Public Administration (Mid-Career Program) from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s degree in American History from Harvard.

Philip Ewing is global editorial lead for General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., the world’s top builder of remotely piloted aircraft. He helps shape, create and execute strategic communications and more to tell the company’s story. Before joining the aerospace industry, Ewing was a defense and national security journalist with NPR, Politico, Military.com and the Military Times newspapers. He covered the U.S. Navy, the Pentagon, congressional oversight of national security, the defense industry, the intelligence community and more in a career that rambled across the United States and the world. He holds an M.A. from the University of Illinois-Springfield and a B.S. from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

Neta Ezer is the Northrop Grumman Corporate Director of Strategic Planning. Dr. Ezer previously served as Technical Fellow and Chief Technologist for Human-Machine Teaming in Northrop Grumman Mission Systems and as an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Architect for the Northrop Grumman AI Campaign.Prior to Northrop Grumman, Dr. Ezer was a Senior Human Engineering Researcher at the Futron Corporation, working on NASA Orion, International Space Station and human-robot interaction research. She served as Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Ezer has over 15 years of experience in human factors, user experience and AI, with over 40 published papers and proceedings in these areas. Dr. Ezer holds a B.S. in Industrial Design and M.S. and PhD degrees in Engineering Psychology from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Brian Jones is a South Carolina native, having grown up in Columbia, and graduating from North Carolina State University in 2000 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering and Pulp and Paper Engineering. He started his career in the Paper Industry as a manufacturing engineer at the MeadWestvaco Paper mill in Evadale, TX in 2000 and took a manufacturing engineering assignment for CoverRight Surfaces, a subsidiary of AkzoNobel in 2002 before coming to work for ExxonMobil in 2004. He began work with ExxonMobil in polyethylene manufacturing at the Beaumont Polyethylene Plant and held a variety of assignments, including process safety engineer, project engineer, contact engineer, and business analyst. He moved to ExxonMobil's Beaumont Refinery in 2007 as the Reformer Operations Section Supervisor and then came back to ExxonMobil Chemical Company, a division of Exxon Mobil Corporation, (“EMCC”) where he became the North America Ethylene/Propylene Senior Planning Advisor in 2009 and the Santoprene Product Manager in 2011. In February 2014, he moved back to manufacturing as the ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Polyolefins Plant Site Operations Manager and then moved to the ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Chemical Plant as the Technical Manager in 2017. He has continued his experience in manufacturing and took on the ExxonMobil Singapore Chemical Plant Operations Manager position in February 2020. He most recently moved to ExxonMobil’s Spring Campus as the Global Olefins Commercial Manager for ExxonMobil Product Solutions Company, a division of Exxon Mobil Corporation, and is enjoying his time back in the business. Brian has been married to his wife, Jamie, for 18 years. They live in The Woodlands, TX and have three children, one daughter, Avery (14), and two sons, Brady (12) and Sawyer (8).

Janaki Kates is a national security commentator and consultant drawing on her nearly 18-year career in government where she was known for expanding missions and growing diverse workforces. Ms. Kates started at the CIA as a space and counterspace analyst. As an analytic manager, she led a variety of teams across Directorates that focused on UAVs, cruise missiles, counterproliferation, and counterintelligence. Ms. Kates also served in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) where she oversaw multiple technical Analysis of Alternatives to inform ODNI’s budget build. She also served as the Director of Government Affairs for Intelligence Programs at Northrop Grumman. In addition, Ms. Kates was an intelligence briefer to executives at the Department of State and National Security Council, an editor for the President’s Daily Brief, and served as the Executive Assistant to the Deputy Director of National Intelligence during a Presidential transition. Ms. Kates has a BS in Aeronautical and Astronautical engineering from MIT, and a MA in Security Studies from Georgetown University. She lives in Arlington, VA with her husband and two children.

Lieutenant Colonel (LtCol) Will Kerrigan is Commanding Officer, 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, 6th Marine Regiment. He is originally from Stafford, Virginia. He graduated from Christopher Newport University in 2005 with a B.S. in Governmental Administration and subsequently commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. From September 2005 to June 2006, he attended the Basic Officer Course and Infantry Officer Course in Quantico, VA. In June 2006, he was assigned as Platoon Commander, Combined Anti-Armor Team (CAAT) Platoon, Weapons Company, 3d Battalion, 6th Marines and deployed to Habbaniyah, Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In September 2007, Lt Kerrigan was assigned as Executive Officer, Company I, and deployed to Fallujah, Iraq in support of OIF. Upon redeployment, he was assigned as Commanding Officer, Headquarters and Service Company. From June 2009 to June 2012, Capt Kerrigan was assigned as Platoon Commander, 3rd Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST) Company in Norfolk, VA. During that time, he completed deployments to Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Naval Support Activity, Bahrain and finished his tour as the Training Officer for Marine Corps Security Force Regiment. In July 2012, Capt Kerrigan attended Expeditionary Warfare School (EWS) in Quantico, VA, and graduated with distinction. In July 2013, Capt Kerrigan was assigned to 2d Battalion, 7th Marines (2/7) and assumed command of Company E. In 2014, he deployed as the Crisis Response Company Commander with Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Central Command (SPMAGTF-CR-CC) 15.1 in support of Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR). Upon redeployment, Maj Kerrigan was reassigned as the Operations Officer. Maj Kerrigan redeployed to Al Jaber, Kuwait in direct support of OIR as the Ground Combat Element (GCE) Operations Officer, SPMAGTF-CR-CC 16.2. Maj Kerrigan finished his tour with 2/7 as the Battalion Executive Officer. From June 2017 to April 2020, Maj Kerrigan served as the Commanding Officer of Recruiting Station Baton Rouge. From May 2020 to June 2022, LtCol Kerrigan was assigned to the White House as the Military Aide to the President. Additional schools LtCol Kerrigan has attended include: Marine Corps Command and Staff College, Operations and Tactics Instructor Course, Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course, and the Martial Arts Instructor Course. He received a Masters of Education from Liberty University in 2012 and completed the 2022 MIT Seminar XXI as a National Security Policy Fellow. LtCol Kerrigan is currently a Strategy and Statecraft Fellow with the Center of Strategic and International Studies. LtCol Kerrigan has received the following personal awards: Defense Superior Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (with gold star in lieu of second award), Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (with gold star in lieu of second award), Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (with combat distinguishing device; with gold star in lieu of second award), and the Combat Action Ribbon. LtCol Kerrigan is married to the former RaeAnn McKenzie of Keller, Texas and together they have two sons (Austin & Beaux) and one daughter (Emily Belle).

Lami Kim is an Assistant Professor and Director of Asian Studies Program in the Department of National Security and Strategy at the U.S. Army War College, where she also serves as Director of Cyber Command Strategy Fundamentals Program. Her research interests are all things nuclear, emerging technologies and international security, and security issues in East Asia. She has served as a research fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center, the Wilson Center, Pacific Forum, and the Stimson Center; as a Nuclear Scholar and a US-Korea NextGen Scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; a Mansfield-Luce Asian Scholar; as a Visiting Fellow at Seoul National University; and also as a South Korean diplomat. She has taught at Harvard University, Boston College, and the University of Hong Kong. Her work has appeared in The Washington Quarterly, Global Governance, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the National Bureau of Asian Research, Routledge, and The Diplomat, among others. She holds a PhD degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a master’s degree from Harvard University.

As Director of China Programs and Strategic Initiatives at Penn, Scott Moore works with faculty members from across the University to design, implement, and highlight innovative, high-impact global research initiatives in areas including sustainability and emerging technology. A China specialist, Dr. Moore directs Penn’s four research and engagement fund programs, including those designed to support faculty-led projects in China, India, and Africa. Dr. Moore also oversees a variety of Penn global engagement initiatives, including its At-Risk Scholars Program. He also teaches Chinese politics in the Political Science Department and serves as a Senior Fellow at The Water Center at Penn. Prior to Penn, Dr. Moore was a Young Professional and Water Resources Management Specialist at the World Bank Group, and Environment, Science, Technology, and Health Officer for China at the U.S. Department of State, where he worked extensively on the Paris Agreement on climate change. Scott’s research and commentary on a wide range of environmental and international affairs issues has appeared in a range of leading scholarly journals and media outlets, including Nature, The China Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, and The New York Times. His second book, China’s Next Act: How Sustainability and Technology are Reshaping China’s Rise and the World’s Future, will be published by Oxford University Press in late 2022. Dr. Moore holds doctoral and master’s degrees from Oxford University and an undergraduate degree from Princeton.

Juan Luis Ortega is Executive Vice President, Chubb Group and President, Overseas General Insurance. He has executive operating responsibility for Chubb's general insurance business in 51 countries outside of North America, including commercial P&C, traditional and specialty personal lines, and accident and health (A&H) insurance. Overseas General is comprised of two major businesses: one with distribution through retail brokers in five regions of the world – Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, Latin America and Middle East & Africa – and the other an excess and surplus lines company with distribution through brokers in the London wholesale market and Lloyd’s. Mr. Ortega’s scope of responsibility includes all products, underwriting, claims, actuarial and support functions related to these businesses. Mr. Ortega has more than 20 years of insurance industry experience. Prior to his current role, he served as Regional President of Latin America from 2016 to July 2019 and Regional President of the company’s Asia Pacific operations from 2013 to 2016, a period which included ACE’s acquisition of Chubb. Mr. Ortega earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Business Administration from Universidad Diego Portales, Chile.

Prior to serving as The Cohen Group’s Chief Operating Officer, Megan Ortiz served as a Vice President of the firm, managing multiple client engagements in the healthcare, information technology, travel/tourism, and other sectors, and helping clients to build and execute business development strategies in the US, Middle East, and Asia. Ms. Ortiz came to The Cohen Group after receiving an MBA from the Yale School of Management. During her time at Yale, Ms. Ortiz worked at the US Department of the Treasury in the Office of International Affairs, where she conducted research on international financial institutions and assisted with the coordination of the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue. Prior to graduate school, Ms. Ortiz served as Government Affairs Manager for Cross Match Technologies, a provider of biometric identity management systems. In this capacity, she helped develop and execute the company’s public policy strategy, interacting regularly with legislators, federal agencies, and industry partners in the United States and Europe. She also coordinated a large consulting team and redesigned the company’s government-targeted marketing program. Previously, Ms. Ortiz was a graduate fellow at the Free University of Berlin. During her fellowship, she conducted research on German counterterrorism policy and worked at the German Council on Foreign Relations. In addition to her MBA, Ms. Ortiz graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Stanford University. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Child Research Center, and was a Women’s Global Leadership Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

M. Adil Qureshi is chief of staff to the president of Raytheon Intelligence & Space, a business of Raytheon Technologies. He advises the president, coordinates the activities of the leadership team, facilitates operations and new business reviews and leads special projects. Most recently, Qureshi served as associate general counsel of Mergers and Acquisitions at Raytheon Technologies, where he led cross-functional teams in domestic and international transactions and other corporate business initiatives. His responsibilities included leading key workstreams in the merger of Raytheon Company and United Technologies, the United Technologies spinoffs of Otis Elevator and Carrier, and the acquisition of Rockwell Collins. Previously, Qureshi was senior counsel on the commercial engines team at Pratt & Whitney, a division of what was then known as United Technologies, where he provided legal support for aircraft engine sales and aftermarket campaigns with airline customers in Europe. During that time, he led negotiations in critical campaign victories for Pratt & Whitney’s technologically groundbreaking geared turbofan engine. He joined Pratt & Whitney in 2013 as assistant counsel, Mergers and Acquisitions. Prior to joining Pratt & Whitney, Qureshi was an associate in the Washington, DC office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where he specialized in international energy and infrastructure transactions. Qureshi holds a bachelor’s degree in international studies from Johns Hopkins University and a juris doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Amy Robertson is a Cyber Operations Lead at the MITRE Corporation, where she focuses on cyber threat intelligence (CTI) across domains for a number of mission spaces, including weapons systems, space assets, and adversary emulation. She also provides international cyber capacity building expertise in threat intelligence and incident response to the Department of State to enhance cyber ecosystems and resilience in Southeast and Central Asia. Amy has served in various CTI and network defense roles supporting the intelligence community, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Justice. Prior to MITRE, Amy managed international cyber collaboration and capacity building programs across Europe and Central Asia at the Department of Homeland Security and executed cyber risk assessments and OSINT investigations for critical infrastructure operators and international, state and local governments. She is routinely tapped as a subject matter expert to provide thought leadership and guidance on CTI and was named to SC Media’s 2021“Women in IT Security” for positively advancing cybersecurity. She received her B.A. from Thomas Edison State College and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Johns Hopkins University with an M.A. in Global Security Studies.

Pat Scanlan has been the Director of The Walt Disney Company Global Intelligence and Threat Analysis (GITA) team since June 2019. At the time of his selection he had just completed a four-year tour of service in London with the Federal Bureau of Investigation where he worked closely with members of the UK police and intelligence services on a range of national security matters. As Director of GITA, Pat has led the evolution of his corporate risk intelligence team as they have adapted to the rapidly changing global threat environment impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, widespread domestic societal unrest, significant shifts in U.S.-China relations and most recently, extensive disruption to Disney global operations from Russian’s invasion of Ukraine. Pat has built a team of dedicated and trusted geo-political analysts that thru his leadership vision, persistently scan the horizon to keep senior leadership and business line partners informed of growing risk and business implications. On a given day, his team provides direct security and intelligence support to ABC World News analysts operating in conflict zones, to Disney Cruise Lines as they assess new ports of call and to National Geographic, Marvel and Lucas Films thru their development of compelling television and magazine content and feature films. Pat empowers his team to challenge their analytic assumptions and reinforces a theme of ‘quiet professionalism’ and personal and team accountability. He places nothing above earning and keeping the trust and confidence of his team. Prior to joining Disney in 2019, Pat served for 21 years in the FBI, first entering on duty in the New York Field Office in 1998. Due to timing and fate, he was on the lone FBI squad permanently assigned inside building 6 World Trade Center when the attacks of 09/11 took place. He spent months as a first responder in the recovery efforts and years supporting the investigation and prosecution of the attack plotters and followers. His career highlights include two tours in Afghanistan supporting U.S. Special Operations, an assignment to the Critical Incident Response Group and serving as the FBI Senior Liaison Officer to U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa, Florida. In that role he provided law enforcement and legal guidance to SOCOM Commanders Bill Mcraven and Joe Votel. Pat also provided direct support to victims of critical incidents at the Manchester Arena, the Easter day attacks at multiple locations in Sri Lanka, the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando Florida and multiple incidents in central London from 2015-2019. While in London, Pat also served as the counterterrorism security advisor liaison contact for American branded companies such as the National Football League (NFL), The Walt Disney Company and other major U.S. companies operating in the UK and across Europe. Pat was born in Daytona Beach, Florida. Before joining the FBI, he was employed as a police officer with the City of Daytona Beach Police Department from 1995 to 1998. Pat earned a Master's of Science in Criminal Justice from the University of Central Florida in Orlando in 1997 and has received Joint Duty Credit for his work with the U.S. military and is a certified Field Intelligence Officer. Pat credits his incredible life journey to the strength of his family and the mentoring of his father, a retired Army Sergeant Major. His wife Cori is employed as a flight attendant and only thru her unwavering support has he achieved not one magical career, but two which continues onward with Disney.

James (“Jamie”) Wise is a professional staff member on the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee on the House Appropriations Committee. Prior to joining the committee, Jamie served as a Senior Vice President, Consulting at Height Capital Markets. Before that, Jamie served in a variety of staff capacities on Capitol Hill. He began his career working for Sen. John Kerry in 1999 and then Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT) in 2004 before returning to the Senate to work as a Legislative Assistant for Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) in 2007, eventually becoming the Senator’s Legislative Director from 2010-2014 and Chief of Staff from 2014-2017. Jamie earned his B.A. from Tufts University and his M.A. from the Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy.

The launch of the Strategy and Statecraft Seminar was made possible by support from Dr. M.J. Chung, in honor of Dr. Henry Kissinger. Dr. Chung has shared with us an essay about Dr. Kissinger, which can be seen here.