Kathleen Hicks is senior vice president, Henry A. Kissinger Chair, and director of the International Security Program at CSIS. From 2009 to July 2013, Dr. Hicks served as a senior official in the Department of Defense. She was confirmed in May 2012 as principal deputy under-secretary of defense for policy, She also served as deputy under-secretary of defense for strategy, plans, and forces, leading the development of the 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance and the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review. From 2006 to early 2009, Dr. Hicks served as a senior fellow at CSIS, leading a variety of research projects in the national security field. She was a career civil servant in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 1993 to 2006. Dr. Hicks has received numerous recognitions for her service in the Department of Defense. She 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.