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
To prepare recommendations for this report, the Commission is holding public conversations and meeting with senior national security leaders, business leaders, members of Congress, and foreign allies and partners. We invite you to join Commission Chair Jane Harman and Vice Chair Eric Edelman, along with commissioners Tom Mahnken, General Jack Keane, Mara Rudman, and Alissa Starzak, for a public conversation moderated by Miller Center Director and CEO William Antholis.
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.