Master of National Security Policy Faculty

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Admiral Dennis Blair is the first Knott Distinguished Visiting Professor of the Practice at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. He serves as a member of the Energy Security Leadership Council and chairs the board of Securing America’s Future Energy. In addition, he serves on the boards of Freedom House, the National Bureau of Asian Research, the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, No Labels, and chairs the Strategic Advisory Group of Lockheed Martin Space.

From 2014-18 Admiral Blair was the CEO and Chairman of the Board of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA. From January 2009 to May 2010, as Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Blair led the sixteen national intelligence agencies. He was president and chief executive officer of the Institute for Defense Analyses from 2003-06.

Prior to retiring from the Navy in 2002 after a career of 34 years, Admiral Blair was the Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Command. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Admiral Blair earned a master’s degree in history and languages from Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar. He is the author of Military Engagement: Influencing Armed Forces Worldwide to Support Democratic Transitions. Three commissions he co-chaired have issued recent reports: A National Security Strategy for 5G; Oil Security 2025: U.S. National Security Policy in an Era of Domestic Oil Abundance, and The Report of the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property 

Course: Threat and Opportunities

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Burke is an Adjunct Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. She is the George P. Shultz Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Washington, DC and a Senior Adviser and Leadership and Development at Exactus Advisors.

Burke previously served as a special assistant to two Deputy Secretaries of Defense, a counterterrorism analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency and a foreign affairs adviser in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (Western Hemisphere Affairs and Detainee Policy). She was also an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve.

Burke has served as a World Politics & Statecraft Fellow at the Smith Richardson Foundation and a Visiting Research Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. She is a Board Member and Advisor for Orion Military Scholarships and a long-time volunteer for Army families and recipient of the Department of the Army Commanders’ Awards for Public Service from the 7th Infantry Division, the 25th Infantry Division, and the 101st Airborne Division. 

Burke holds an A.B. degree in History and Literature from Harvard University and an MPhil in Latin American Studies from Oxford University. She earned her MA in Law and Diplomacy and her Ph.D. in international relations from The Fletcher School, Tufts University, in 2021.

Course: National Security Institutions 

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Philip J. Candreva is an Adjunct Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. He is also a Senior Lecturer of Budgeting & Public Policy at the Department of Defense Management in the Naval Postgraduate School and an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Monterey College of Law.

Candreva retired from active duty in 2006, after a 22-year career including operational assignments and financial management responsibilities at which time he entered academia. Since 2015, in addition to other academic duties, he has taught in the Navy’s Center for Executive Education and has consulted for over three dozen flag officers on financial matters.

Candreva authored the book, National Defense Budgeting and Financial Management, and numerous peer-reviewed articles in the areas of performance-based budgeting, appropriations law, and managing fiscal stress. He serves on the Board of Trustees of the Monterey College of Law.

Candreva holds a B.S. degree in mineral economics from Pennsylvania State University. He earned an M.S. degree in Financial Management from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1996 and a J.D. from the Monterey College of Law in 2015.

Course: National Security Budgeting 

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Elizabeth Grasmeder is an Adjunct Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. She served since 2015 as an instructor teaching US Government officials and foreign service officers courses on Africa and the Middle East, among other topics.

Grasmeder has served as a foreign policy analyst in the US Government since 2008, and is a member of its senior analytic cadre. Among her teaching duties, Grasmeder was the Lead Instructor for the Military Analysis Seminar for the US Government from 2019 to 2020, and since 2015 has lead or co-led courses on the modern Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, and insurgency and counterinsurgency. In 2019 and 2020, Grasmeder received the Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program award, and previously was awarded graduate studies fellowships by the US Government in 2008 and 2009.

Alongside foreign policy work, Grasmeder also has served as a leader in US Government diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and including leading and supporting employee advocacy groups for female officers, LGBTQ+ officers, and employees and their dependents with disabilities

Grasmeder holds a B.S. degree in Foreign Service and an M.A. in Arab Studies from Georgetown University. She earned her Ph.D. in political science from The George Washington University in 2020. Her research has been published in International Security, The Washington Post, and War on the Rocks.

Course: Methods of Policy Analysis

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Laura A. Hall is an Adjunct Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. She is a senior inspector at the Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of State, where she oversees reviews of U.S. foreign assistance programs.  Previously, she was the Senior Advisor to the Assistant Administrator for National Preparedness at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Hall previously served at the U.S. Department of State for more than twenty years, most recently as the Director for the Near East and North Africa in the Office of U.S. Foreign Assistance Resources from 2011-2019.

Hall served in the National Security Council as the Director for Stability Operations and the Director for International Development.  She was also integral to the creation of the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization at the U.S. Department of State, where she served in multiple roles.  She has also led several major reform efforts at the Department, focused on agile overseas response to conflict and the policy decision process.  Early in her career, Hall worked on nuclear arms control negotiations, served at the U.S. Embassy Moscow, and advised the Chief Human Capital Officer.  

Hall was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in 2010. Hall holds a Baccalaureus Artium et Scientae degree from the Honors College at the University of South Carolina. She received an MPA degree in international security and economics from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy in 1998.

Course: Team-based Learning

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The Honorable Dr. John Hillen (Duke '88) is a Distinguished Lecturing Fellow at Duke University’s Center for Politics (POLIS) and an Executive-in-Residence of the Political Science Department.   Dr. Hillen teaches courses on civil discourse, leadership,  strategy, diplomacy, and national security.  He is also an affiliate faculty member of the Duke Program in American Grand Strategy.   Hillen just concluded five years as the James C. Wheat Jr. Visiting Professor in Leadership at historic Hampden-Sydney College.  He has also taught in the business school at George Mason University, where he won a number of teaching awards.

Hillen is a former US Assistant Secretary of State, decorated Army combat veteran, and former public company CEO.   He continues to serve as a Board Chairman of several companies and is a Trustee or Director of a number of non-profit enterprises and philanthropic organizations.  He has been the CEO of several companies, public and private, and a Director of over a dozen others.

Unanimously confirmed by the Senate in 2005, Hillen served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs in the second half of the Bush administration and in that capacity spent much of his time with U.S. and allied troops in war zones from Iraq to Afghanistan to the southern Philippines. He has written or edited several critically acclaimed books on international security affairs and has published articles in dozens of journals and newspapers, including Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, National Review, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He has appeared on every major television network and was an on-air commentator for ABC News for a number of years.  

A public intellectual and experienced policy professional, Hillen has also published extensively on leadership, public policy, and strategy.   His most recent book is the international best-seller The Strategy Dialogues, A Primer on Business Strategy and Strategic Management.  His previous book, What Happens Now: Reinvent Yourself As a Leader Before Your Business Outruns You (co-authored with Mark Nevins) was named one of the top 30 business books of 2018 and is in its third printing.

Hillen, who served for 12 years as an Army reconnaissance officer and paratrooper, was awarded the Bronze Star for his role in the Battle of the 73 Easting during Operation Desert Storm.  He spent nine years on the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel, the federal advisory committee supporting the head of the U.S. Navy and received the Navy’s Meritorious Public Service Award in 2017. He was the military advisor on the original Call of Duty video game series set in World War II.  In 2020 he was inducted into the US Army ROTC Hall of Fame.

In addition to his undergraduate degree from Duke, Dr. Hillen holds a master’s degree in war studies from King’s College London, a doctorate in international relations from Oxford University, and an MBA from the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University.   He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from Hampden-Sydney College in 2019.

Course: Leadership in the National Security Environment

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Mark Mazzetti is an Adjunct Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. He is also a Washington Correspondent for The New York Times, and has covered national security issues from the Washington Bureau since 2006. Mazzetti previously served as a Pentagon Correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and U.S. News & World Report.

Mazzetti received the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting and the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. He received the George Polk Award for Military Reporting in 2010 and 2015.

Mazzetti holds a B.A. degree in Public Policy Studies and History from Duke University. He received a Master of Studies degree from Oxford University in 1997.

Course: National Security Ethics

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Tim Nichols (B.A, UVA; M.A, USF; M.B.A.,NCSU) Tim served as an intelligence officer in the Marine Corps for over 21 years with extensive experience in the special operations, intelligence, and counterterrorism fields. His overseas experience spanned deployments to Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East, East Africa, Central America, and the Pacific. He was designated a Regional Affairs Officer for East Africa. While in Iraq, he directed a joint interagency task force attempting to track and target foreign extremists traveling to Iraq for violent activities.

Prior to his retirement from the military, Tim taught courses in Leadership, Ethics, and Management at Duke, UNC, and NC State for four years. In addition to his consulting activities, Tim is currently a research fellow and visiting  professor of the practice in the School of Public Policy at Duke University. He is the executive director of the Counterterrorism and Public Policy Fellowship Program and the Faculty Representative for the Master of National Security Policy Program.  

His research interests and teaching responsibilities include  policy analysis, intelligence, interagency coordination, national security, homeland security and counterterrorism policy.

Course: Team-based Learning for National Security Professionals 

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Jon J. Rosenwasser is an Adjunct Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. He is also the Intelligence Community Chief Financial Officer.

Rosenwasser previously served as Program Manager for the Center for the Study of Intelligence at the Central Intelligence Agency and as a Senior Strategist at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He was an Adjunct Professor in the School of Public Policy at George Mason University from 2005 to 2007.
Rosenwasser is a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Armed Forces Communication and Electronics Association, and the National Stuttering Association.

Rosenwasser holds a B.A. from Stanford University and an MPP from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. He earned his Ph.D. from The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University in 2004.

Course: Spring National Security Elective

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Tommy Ross has worked in senior leadership positions in both chambers of Congress, the executive branch, and the private sector. He has served as Chief of Staff to the U.S. Secretary of the Navy and, in a temporary capacity, as Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition.  He also served as the first deputy assistant secretary of defense for security cooperation, in which capacity he led the most significant reforms to Department of Defense security cooperation, resources, and implementation in the department’s history. This area comprises his primary research interests and teaching responsibilities within the Masters of National Security Policy program.  He has previously participated in a number of research projects on security cooperation with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the American Bar Association, the Congressionally-established Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States, and others, and has published numerous journal articles on the subject. 

Currently, Ross is the Head of Global Public Policy at Alteryx, a leading data analytics and artificial intelligence firm.  Prior to his Pentagon experience, he served for 12 years as a staff member in Congress, including as senior intelligence and defense adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and as legislative director for Representative David Price (D-NC), advising each on national security policy. During his time with Representative Price, he also supported the House Democracy Partnership, a congressional commission working to strengthen institutional capabilities of legislatures in developing democracies.

Ross is a graduate of Davidson College in North Carolina and holds an M.A. in theology and ethics from Union Theological Seminary in New York.

Course: Spring National Security Elective