Kathleen Holland Hicks (born September 25, 1970) is an American government official who has served as the

United States deputy secretary of defense The deputy secretary of defense (acronym: DepSecDef) is a statutory office () and the second-highest-ranking official in the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The deputy secretary is the principal civilian deputy to the se ...

since February 9, 2021. She is the first Senate-confirmed woman in this role. Hicks previously served as the principal deputy

under secretary of defense for policy The United States under secretary of defense for policy (USDP) is a high level civilian official in the United States Department of Defense. The under secretary of defense for policy is the principal staff assistant and adviser to both the Unite ...

during the

Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...

. By 2020 Hicks was an American

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

and national security advisor working as a senior vice president and director of the international security program at the

Center for Strategic and International Studies The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. CSIS was founded as the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Georgetown University in 1962. The center conducts polic ...

.Breaking Defense (19 Feb 2021) WHO’S WHO IN DEFENSE: KATHLEEN HICKS, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
/ref> She is the highest ranking woman currently serving in the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...

Education

Hicks completed a B.A in history and politics at

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...

in 1991, where she graduated with

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

and

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

honors. In 1993, she earned a M.P.A. in national security studies at

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of Mary ...

. Hicks completed a Ph.D. in political science from

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

in 2010. Her dissertation was titled ''Change Agents: Who Leads and Why in the Execution of US National Security Policy''. Charles Stewart III was Hicks' doctoral advisor.

Career

From 1993 to 2006, Hicks was a career

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

in the

Office of the Secretary of Defense The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) is a headquarters-level staff of the United States Department of Defense. It is the principal civilian staff element of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, and it assists the Secretary in carrying out aut ...

, rising from Presidential Management Intern to the

Senior Executive Service The Senior Executive Service (SES) is a position classification in the civil service of the United States federal government equivalent to general officer or flag officer rank in the U.S. Armed Forces. It was created in 1979 when the Civil Service ...

. She was a senior fellow at the

(CSIS) from 2006 to 2009, leading a variety of

national security National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military atta ...

research projects. During the

in 2009, Hicks was appointed deputy undersecretary of defense for strategy, plans and forces in 2009. In 2012, Hicks was the principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy during the

. In that role, she was a liaison for the 2010

Quadrennial Defense Review The Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) was a study by the United States Department of Defense that analyzes strategic objectives and potential military threats. The ''Quadrennial Defense Review Report'' was the main public document describing the Uni ...

and oversaw the 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance. Hicks was a presidentially appointed commissioner for the National Commission on the Future of the Army. She is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the boards of advisors for the

Truman National Security Project The Truman National Security Project is a United States Democratic Party-aligned national security and leadership development organization based in Washington, D.C. It serves to organize center-left to progressive Americans on issues of national ...

and SoldierStrong. Hicks formerly served as a senior vice president, Henry A. Kissinger Chair, and director of the international security program at CSIS. She concurrently served as the Donald Marron scholar at the

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., United States, with campuses in Bologna, Italy, and Nanjing, China. It is consistently ranked one of th ...

. In October 2020, she also served on the CSIS- LSHTM High-Level Panel on Vaccine Confidence and Misinformation amid the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, co-chaired by

Heidi Larson Heidi J. Larson is an American anthropologist and the founding director of the Vaccine Confidence Project. Larson headed Global Immunisation Communication at UNICEF and she is the author of '' Stuck: How Vaccine Rumors Start and Why They Don't ...

and J. Stephen Morrison.

United States Deputy Secretary of Defense

On December 30, 2020, Hicks was announced as U.S. president-elect Joe Biden's nominee for

. She appeared before the

Senate Armed Services Committee The Committee on Armed Services (sometimes abbreviated SASC for ''Senate Armed Services Committee'') is a committee of the United States Senate empowered with legislative oversight of the nation's military, including the Department of Defe ...

on February 2, 2021. She was confirmed by

voice vote In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vo ...

by the full Senate on February 8, 2021 and sworn into office on February 9, 2021. Hicks will lead the modernization of the country's

nuclear triad A nuclear triad is a three-pronged military force structure that consists of land-launched nuclear missiles, nuclear-missile-armed submarines, and strategic aircraft with nuclear bombs and missiles. Specifically, these components are land-based ...

.Paul McCleary (2 Feb 2021) DepSecDef Will Run Most Missile Defense, Nuke Modernization; SecDef Recused
/ref>Paul McCleary (24 Feb 2021) New Hicks Memo Sets Acquisition, Force Posture 2022 Budget Priorities
Feb. 17 memo.

Selected works

* * * * * * *

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hicks, Kathleen 1970 births Living people People from Fairfield, California Mount Holyoke College alumni University of Maryland, College Park alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni American women academics American women civil servants Obama administration personnel United States Department of Defense officials Biden administration personnel United States Deputy Secretaries of Defense 21st-century American women