Avril Haines

Avril Haines is a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University, Deputy Director of Columbia World Projects, a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. She additionally serves as a Member of the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service. Avril serves on a number of boards and advisory groups, including the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s Bio Advisory Group, the Board of Trustees for the Vodafone Foundation, and the Refugees International Policy Advisory Council.

Prior to joining Columbia University, Avril served as Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama. She chaired the Deputies Committee, the administration’s principal forum for formulating national security and foreign policy. Before that, she served as the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Avril also held a number of senior legal positions in the government, including Legal Adviser to the National Security Council. Avril received her bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Chicago and a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.