Rebecca Hersman is a Senior Research Scholar at GovAI. She also serves as an independent consultant and adjunct staff member at RAND and the Institute for Defense Analysis specializing in strategic risk management for complex national security threats, including emerging technologies and nuclear risks.
Until January 2025, she served as Director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), overseeing more than 2,200 personnel across 50+ countries and managing over $2.4 billion in programs to counter and deter the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and mitigate emerging threats.
Prior to DTRA, Ms. Hersman was Director of the Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) and a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). At CSIS, she was a leading voice on nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons policy, global health security, and crisis management. She led a flagship national program to cultivate the next generation of nuclear experts and authored influential studies on WMD policy, strategic stability, and decision-making under crisis. From 2009 to 2015, Ms. Hersman was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Countering WMD in the U.S. Department of Defense. She holds an M.A. from Georgetown University and a B.A. from Duke University. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
