Experts

Mara Rudman

Fast Facts

  • Served in both the Obama and Clinton administrations, including as deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs
  • Director, Ripples of Hope Project
  • Former deputy envoy and chief of staff for the Office of the Special Envoy for Middle East Peace, U.S. Department of State
  • Expertise in foreign affairs, diplomacy, national security, the Middle East

Areas Of Expertise

  • Foreign Affairs
  • American Defense and Security
  • War and Terrorism
  • Middle East
  • Governance
  • The Presidency

Mara Rudman is the James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center, where she directs the Ripples of Hope Project aimed at identifying practical approaches to help democratic leaders resolve key challenges. 

She serves on the 2022 National Defense Strategy Commission and the Howard University College of Arts and Sciences board of visitors. Rudman also consults for Democracy Forward. 

Rudman’s government positions have included serving as deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs in the Obama and Clinton administrations; deputy envoy for the Office of the Special Envoy for Middle East Peace at the U.S. Department of State; assistant administrator for the Middle East at the U.S. Agency for International Development; and chief counsel to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.  

Previously, Rudman was executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress and senior vice president for policy/projects at Business Executives for National Security. She also led Quorum Strategies, a geopolitical strategic advisory firm. Rudman has been a guest on numerous TV and radio shows and has written for and been quoted in various print publications. She received her BA from Dartmouth College and a law degree from Harvard Law School.

Mara Rudman News Feed

The path to a peaceful settlement of the armed conflict in Gaza requires a commitment to separate Israeli and Palestinian states and a change in leadership for both Hamas and Israel, a panel of experts told a Rotunda Dome Room audience on Monday.
Mara Rudman UVA Today
Mara Rudman, who served as a Middle East envoy during the Obama administration, said that while the underlying relationship could withstand the latest spat, “the personal dynamics between Biden and Netanyahu likely are particularly strained” in ways that showcase why the Israeli leader is facing growing calls for a change in leadership.
Mara Rudman Washington Post
The current Israel–Hamas conflict, instigated by the horrific Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, continues with ravaging impact in Gaza. The Middle East region is a tinderbox. Critical U.S. and international interests in security, stability, sovereignty, and nationhood are on the line.

Mara Rudman, a former U.S. deputy national security advisor and a Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, moderates a discussion on constructive ways forward with Ghaith al-Omari, former advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team; Nimrod Novik, former senior advisor on foreign policy to the late Shimon Peres and a member of the executive committee at Commanders for Israel's Security; and Suzanne Maloney, vice president and foreign policy program director at the Brookings Institution, whose research focuses on Iran and the broader Middle East and who served on the policy planning staff under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Mara Rudman Miller Center Presents
Mara Rudman discusses shifts in US Middle East policy.
Mara Rudman Middle East Institute
Netanyahu is “totally motivated by his own political survival — and avoiding legal sanction as well.”
Mara Rudman New York Times
The 2024 Ambassador William C. Battle Symposium on American Diplomacy assesses U.S. deterrence posture in the aftermath of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and in the face of profound technological change.
Admiral Charles A. Richard, Mara Rudman, and Philip Potter Miller Center Presents