MICHELE L. MALVESTI, Ph.D.

Michele L. Malvesti, a senior national security professional specializing in counterterrorism, homeland security, and national security decision-making, currently serves as Vice President for Special Programs in the Intelligence, Security, and Technology Group at Science Applications International Corporation.  She also is a Senior Fellow with the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy at West Point and serves on the Board of Directors for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.    

Dr. Malvesti recently co-chaired the Presidential study review, completed in May 2009, that reformed the White House organization for homeland security and counterterrorism on behalf of the Obama Administration.  Previously, she served more than five years (2002-2007) on the National Security Council staff, including as the Senior Director for Combating Terrorism Strategy.  In this role, she advised the President’s National Security Advisor and Homeland Security Advisor on counterterrorism policy and strategy, was the principal author of the 2006 National Strategy for Combating Terrorism and the 2007 National Strategy for Homeland Security, and directed the development of The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned. 

Dr. Malvesti also has worked as a professional in the Intelligence Community.  She joined the Defense Intelligence Agency in 1994, first working as a program manager in the Office for Special Technical Operations.  She later moved to the agency’s Office of Counterterrorism Analysis where she specialized in Middle East terrorism and was awarded the Defense Intelligence Director’s Award for exceptionally meritorious service in counterterrorism analysis.  Prior to her work at DIA, she served as an intelligence analyst for the Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.   

Dr. Malvesti holds a Bachelor of Arts, Highest Distinction, in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she also was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.  Her Political Science degree was conferred with Highest Honors.  She received both a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy and a Doctor of Philosophy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. 

Dr. Malvesti was raised in North Carolina and is now a resident of Virginia.