BOARD OF DIRECTORS CANDIDATES
The Honorable Christine H. Fox
Ms. Christine Fox is Assistant Director for Policy and Analysis at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, a position she has held since 2014.
Previously, she served as acting Deputy Secretary of Defense from 2013 to 2014. With her appointment, she became the highest-ranking woman to work in the Pentagon. From 2009 to 2013, she served as Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and, prior to that, as president of the Center for Naval Analyses from 2005 to 2009.
Ms. Fox holds bachelor’s and master of science degrees from George Mason University.
Mr. William J. Hannigan
Mr. William Hannigan is the former president and chief operation officer of AT&T. Joining the firm in late 2003, he helped lead AT&T through a challenging time in its and the industry’s history.
Previously, Mr. Hannigan served as chairman and chief executive officer at Sabre Holdings, an S&P 500 company and world leader in travel commerce, distribution, and technology. He also served as chairman of the board of Travelocity.com and as a senior corporate officer with Sprint, Pacific Bell, and SBC Communications.
He was appointed by President George W. Bush to the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee and National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee in 2001 and 2004, respectively. He also has served on many corporate and nonprofit boards and advisory committees.
Mr. Hannigan enlisted in the Navy in 1977, serving on board the submarine USS Jack (SSN-605). He holds a master of business administration from the University of Colorado.
ADM Harry B. Harris Jr., USN (Ret.)
Admiral Harry Harris served as Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, from 2013 to 2015 and then as Commander, U.S. Pacific Command, until his retirement from the Navy in 2018. He subsequently was appointed U.S. ambassador to South Korea, serving until January 2021.
A 1978 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Admiral Harris was designated a naval flight officer (NFO) in 1979. He commanded Patrol Squadron 46, Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing 1, Joint Task Force–Guantanamo, U.S. Sixth Fleet, and Striking and Support Forces NATO. He has served in every geographic combatant command region and participated in Operations Earnest Will, Desert Shield/Storm, Southern Watch, Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, Willing Spirit, and Odyssey Dawn. Admiral Harris’ staff assignments include three tours on the Navy staff, including Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Communication Networks. He also served as the Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2011–13. In this capacity he traveled globally as the Chairman’s personal representative to the Secretary of State.
Admiral Harris has logged 4,400 flight hours, including more than 400 combat hours, in maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft. Prior to his retirement, he was the Navy’s “Gray Owl,” the NFO who had held this designation the longest, and the “Old Goat,” the longest-serving Naval Academy graduate still on active duty.
He holds a master’s of public administration from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a master’s degree in national security studies from Georgetown University. He was an MIT Seminar 21 fellow for the 1999–2000 class.
RADM Margaret Klein, USN (Ret.)
Rear Admiral Margaret Klein is the Dean of Leadership and Ethics at the Naval War College.Before retiring from the Navy in 2017, her last active-duty assignment was as the Secretary of Defense’s Advisor for Military Professionalism. Prior to that, she served as Chief of Staff for the Joint Staff J5 (Strategy, Plans, and Policy) and U.S. Cyber Command.
Previous assignments include command of an expeditionary strike group in combat operations in the Mediterranean Sea, director of Operations for the Navy Network Warfare Command, 82nd Commandant of Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, and command of an E-6 squadron and the Navy’s nuclear command-and-control wing. She has more than 4,500 flight hours in the EC-130 and E-6.
Rear Admiral Klein holds a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Naval Academy, a master’s degree from the University of Southern Maine, and a doctor of education from the University of Pennsylvania.
The Honorable Ellen M. Lord
Ms. Ellen Lord served as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment from August 2017 to January 2021. Prior to her appointment, she was president and chief executive officer of Textron Systems, a multibillion-dollar company with products and services supporting defense, homeland security, aerospace, and infrastructure protection for clients around the world.
Ms. Lord is the former vice chairman of the National Defense Industrial Association and has previously served on the boards of the U.S. India Business Council and the Defense Technology Initiative. She recently was appointed to the board of AAR, a global provider of aviation services, and serves as an advisor to a number of companies.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Connecticut College and a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of New Hampshire.
ADM Michael S. Rogers, USN (Ret.)
Admiral Michael Rogers retired in June 2018, after nearly 37 years of Navy service. He culminated his career with more than four years leading U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency.
Admiral Rogers has also served as the Director for Intelligence for both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and U.S. Pacific Command, and as commander, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command/U.S. 10th Fleet.
Duties afloat have included service as a surface warfare officer on board the USS Caron (DD-970); as the senior cryptologist on the staff of commander, Carrier Group 2/John F. Kennedy Carrier Strike Group; and on the staff of Commander, U.S. Sixth Fleet, embarked in the USS Lasalle (AGF-3). Ashore, he has commanded Naval Security Group Activity Winter Harbor, Maine; and has served at Naval Security Group Department; Naval Station Rota, Spain; Naval Military Personnel Command; Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet; the Bureau of Personnel; and Commander, Naval Security Group Command.
An NROTC graduate of Auburn University, Admiral Rogers holds a master’s degree in national security, is a distinguished graduate of the National War College, and a graduate of highest distinction from the Naval War College.
EDITORIAL BOARD CANDIDATES
CAPT Thomas E. Clarity, USN
Captain Thomas Clarity is a military professor in the Joint Military Operations Department at the Naval War College. He has deployed in support of Operations Southern Watch, Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, New Dawn, and Inherent Resolve and on multiple occasions to the Indo-Pacific area of responsibility. He previously served as operations officer on board the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) and commanding officer of Electronic Attack Squadron 131, an EA-18G Growler squadron based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington.
Captain Clarity holds a bachelor’s degree in English language and literature from Villanova University and a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College. He is a frequent contributor to Proceedings.
CDR DeVere J. Crooks, USN
Commander DeVere Crooks is a surface warfare officer and director of the prospective commanding officers’ course at Surface Warfare Schools Command in Newport, Rhode Island.
Commander Crooks has served as commanding officer of the USS Halsey (DDG-97), as a special assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations, and as a Navy liaison officer to the U.S. Senate. He served in an exchange tour as a maritime capability analyst for UK Defence Intelligence in London. He is a Proceedings contributor.
SgtMaj Anthony J. Easton, USMC
Sergeant Major Anthony Easton enlisted in July 1994 and earned the military occupation skill of combat engineer. He is assigned to Training and Education Command, Quantico, Virginia.
His tours include 2d Combat Engineer Battalion, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, with deployments to Cuba (Operation Sea Signal), 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Operation Decisive Endeavor), and the 26th MEU (Operations Allied Force, Shining Hope, Joint Guardian, and Avid Response); 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, Camp Pendleton, California, deploying to Iraq in 2004 and 2006 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom; 3rd Battalion 9th Marines, Camp Lejeune, deploying to Iraq again and Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Sergeant Major Easton spent time as a canvasing recruiter and staff noncommissioned officer in charge of Recruiting Sub-Station Fargo, North Dakota, while assigned to Recruiting Station Twin Cities, Minnesota. He also was assigned to inspector–instructor duty in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and St. Paul, Minnesota. He is a graduate of the Navy Senior Enlisted Academy.
LCDR Michelle Foster, USCG
Lieutenant Commander Michelle Foster graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 2007 and developed broad experience as a response officer. She served two years as a deck watch officer and boarding officer on a 270-foot cutter; directed search and rescue in Virginia and North Carolina for three years; and oversaw program response for two 87-foot cutters, aids-to-navigation boats, and surf stations while also acting as command center chief.
From 2015 to 2018, she was commanding officer of Station Cape May, District Five’s largest station with two seasonal station smalls—Fortesque and Townsend’s Inlet. She is qualified on six boat asset types, as well as coxswain of the jet-drive 45-foot response boat medium.
At District 13, Lieutenant Commander Foster oversees small boat/station operations and pollution response across Washington and Oregon, and she is adding air operations oversight duties for three air stations. She holds a master’s degree in national security studies and is working through JPME Phase I as well as attending pollution courses.
LT Andrea Howard, USN
Lieutenant Andrea Howard, one of the first one hundred women in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarine force, is on assignment at the National Nuclear Security Administration and slated to begin the Submarine Officer Advanced Course in March 2022. She completed her division officer tour on board the USS Ohio (SSGN-726) (BLUE), the third U.S. submarine to integrate junior enlisted women.
Following graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2015, she was selected as a Marshall Scholar, earning master’s degrees in global governance and diplomacy from the University of Oxford and in science and security from King’s College London.
Lieutenant Howard is a host for the Center for International Maritime Security’s Sea Control podcast and a frequent contributor to Proceedings. She won the 2019 Emerging and Disruptive Technologies Essay Contest with her piece outlining why the Navy’s hypersonic weapons should have precision that matches their speed.
Maj Brian A. Kerg, USMC
Major Brian Kerg is a Marine Corps communications officer who began his career as an enlisted mortarman and SAW gunner. Currently, he is a nonresident fellow with Marine Corps University’s Brute Krulak Center for Creativity and Innovation and a military fellow with the College of William and Mary’s Project for International Peace and Security.
Commissioned in 2006, he has deployed to the western Pacific and to Afghanistan in support of NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan 12.1, serving as the detachment’s executive officer and Afghan Border Police advisor.
Major Kerg is a graduate of Expeditionary Warfare School and the Air Command and Staff College online master’s program. He holds a master’s degree in military history from Norwich University, a master of science in information from the University of Michigan, and a master’s degree in military operational art and science from Air University.
LCDR Tyson B. Meadors, USN
Lieutenant Commander Tyson Meadors is a Navy cyber warfare engineer assigned to Cryptologic Warfare Activity 67. He previously served both afloat and ashore as a surface warfare officer and naval intelligence officer.
From 2017 to 2018, Lieutenant Commander Meadors was a Director of Cyber Policy on the National Security Council Staff, where he advised the President, Vice President, and multiple National Security Advisors on cyber operations policy, technology, and threats and helped draft multiple national-level strategies and policies.
Prior to commissioning from the U.S. Naval Academy, he worked as a journalist and taught English in the People’s Republic of China. He is the only naval officer to ever defeat a guided-missile destroyer in a real-world engagement and is the founder and chief executive officer of Ex Mare Cyber, a cybersecurity consultancy.
CDR Scott E. Welles, USN
Commander Scott Welles is executive officer of Tactical Air Control Squadron 12, based in Coronado, California. TacRon 12 just completed a deployment on board the USS America (LHA-6).
A career aviator, Commander Welles previously served as a department head at Strike Fighter Squadron 37 in Virginia Beach, Virginia, deploying in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. He has accumulated more than 2,000 flight hours and 440 carrier arrested landings.
Commander Welles holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from the University of Colorado at Boulder, an executive master of business administration from the Naval Postgraduate School, and is an honor graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He is a frequent contributor to Proceedings.
LtCol Adam Yang, USMC
Lieutenant Colonel Adam Yang is a former enlisted Marine and 2005 U.S. Naval Academy graduate. A communications officer and veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, he serves as a PhD strategist within the Plans, Policies, and Operations Directorate of Headquarters Marine Corps. He currently is detailed to the Joint Staff J-5 to help write the 2022 National Military Strategy.
He also is director of the Barrow Fellowship for Strategic Competition at Marine Corps University and is the creator/editor of the Marine Corps’ graphic novel series Destination Unknown, published with Marine Corps University Press.
Lieutenant Colonel Yang holds master’s degrees in security studies from Georgetown University and in military studies from Marine Corps University and a master’s degree in information warfare systems engineering and a master of business administration in information business management from the Naval Postgraduate School. He is a PhD Candidate at the School of International Service at American University.