Center for a New American Security

Senior Fellow and Director of the Military, Veterans and Society Program

Margaret C. Harrell is a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Military, Veterans and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security.

Dr. Harrell is co-author of Losing the Battle: The Challenge of Military Suicide and the recent publication, Well After Service: Veteran Reintegration and American Communities.  She has also testified before Congress.

Prior to joining CNAS, Dr. Harrell was a Senior Social Scientist at the RAND Corporation. At the RAND Corporation, Dr. Harrell’s research addressed military manpower and personnel, military families and quality of life. She led or co-led projects addressing the resiliency of military families; how best to support reserve component families; the promotion and management of military generals and admirals; assignment policies for military women; and how best to promote, develop and assign military officers. Dr. Harrell also conducted research for the country of Qatar, assessing how best to manage Qatari institutions providing social services to families.

Dr. Harrell has published over fifty monographs, journal articles and book chapters. Notable works she has authored or coauthored about military families include Deployment Experiences of Guard and Reserve Families: Implications for Support and Retention (RAND 2008); “Understanding the Deployment Experiences of Reserve Component Families,” in Winkler and Bicksler (eds.), The New Guard and Reserve (Falcon Books, 2009); Working Around the Military: Challenges to Military Spouse Employment and Education (RAND 2004); Invisible Women: Junior Enlisted Army Wives (RAND 2000); "Army Officers’ Spouses: Have the White Gloves Been Mothballed?” (Armed Forces and Society, Fall 2001); and "Gender and Class-Based Role Expectations for Army Wives" in Frese and Harrell (eds.), Anthropology and the United States Military: Coming of Age in the Twenty-first Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). 

Dr. Harrell has presented her research findings to audiences including senior leaders from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps as well as senior officials from the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Congressional members and staff. She is a member of the Army Science Board, and has also briefed international audiences, spoken extensively at conferences and lectured at the United States Military Academy. Dr. Harrell’s research has been reported by the New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, National Journal, Time Magazine, Army Times, USA Today, Miami Herald, New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Government Executive, NPR, BBC, AP, and Reuters.

She holds a B.A. with Distinction from the University of Virginia, a M.S. in Systems Analysis and Management from the George Washington University, and a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Virginia, where her dissertation was entitled, “Brass Rank and Gold Rings: Class, Race, Gender and Kinship with the Army Community.”