Michele Flournoy is the co-founder and CEO of the nonpartisan think tank Center for a New American Security, which offers ideas for national security policies.
Flournoy served as defense undersecretary for policy from February 2009 to February 2012, where she worked with the defense secretary on security and defense policy, oversight of military plans and operations and in National Security Council deliberations.
Prior to her confirmation for the role, Flournoy co-led President Barack Obama’s transition team at the Pentagon.
Her public service career also includes stints as principal deputy assistant defense secretary for strategy and threat reduction, as well as deputy assistant defense secretary for strategy.
Flournoy also has served as a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and as a distinguished research professor at the National Defense University’s Institute for National Strategic Studies.
She is a member of the Defense Policy Board, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Strategy Group, as well as a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
She also serves on the boards of MITRE Corp., Rolls Royce North America, Amida Technology Solutions and The Mission Continues, as well as a senior adviser at the Boston Consulting Group.
Flournoy holds a bachelor’s degree in social studies from Harvard University and a master’s degree in international relations from Balliol College, Oxford University, where she was a Newton-Tatum scholar.
