Mara Rudman

Mara Rudman is senior counselor at the Center for American Progress, where she works with policy, advocacy, and communications colleagues to create smart strategies and find the path to turn ideas into action and action into results. She served in both the Obama and Clinton administrations, including as deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs.

Previously, Rudman was executive vice president for policy at American Progress, and before that senior vice president for policy/projects at Business Executives for National Security. She also led Quorum Strategies, a geopolitical strategic advisory firm. Additional government positions have included serving as deputy envoy and chief of staff for the Office of the Special Envoy for Middle East Peace at the U.S. Department of State and assistant administrator for the Middle East at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Earlier in her career, she was chief counsel to the House Foreign Affairs Committee; she started her career working for her hometown member of Congress.

Rudman serves on the National Defense Strategy Commission, Howard University College of Arts and Sciences board of visitors, and as a faculty fellow at Georgetown University.

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 bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a law degree from Harvard Law School.