A panel discussion about career progression in the U.S. federal government and in national security policy think tanks
 

Sarah Adams currently leads Department of Defense (DoD) research and development efforts to discover, incubate and deliver innovative data-driven, technology-enabled solutions to answer complex national security challenges. Ms. Adams has held positions in the government, private, and non-profit sectors, and has worked overseas on behalf of the U.S. Government’s intelligence mission in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Ms. Adams previously served as the Senior Advisor for the U.S. House of Representatives, Select Committee on Benghazi after being recruited as an executive appointment from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Prior to her appointment, Ms. Adams was an award-winning Targeting Analyst at the CIA after joining the Agency in 2006. Ms. Adams holds a Master of Arts degree in International Relations from the University of San Diego and a Bachelor of Science degree in International Business from the University of Central Florida.

Jake Gutman graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in political science and modern Middle Eastern studies. Following graduation, he was a visiting researcher at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland where he conducted research on the role of the Muslim Brotherhood during the Arab Spring. He then moved to Washington, D.C., where he was a James C. Gaither Junior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, focusing on the expansion of global authoritarianism and international support for women’s political empowerment. Prior to attending the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Jake was a legislative aide to Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey. He supported the senator’s role as the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health as well as his work on defense policy and veterans affairs. Jake completed his summer internship as a Harold W. Rosenthal Fellow at the Department of Defense where he worked on U.S. defense policy in Africa.

Eric Robinson is a research programmer and analyst at RAND Corporation based in Washington, DC. His research at RAND is focused on applying data-driven approaches to improve understanding of gray zone threats, insurgency, rebel governance, and special operations issues. He has conducted extensive field research for RAND, including work with special operations forces in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere throughout the Middle East. From 2017 to 2020, he was detailed as a civil servant in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, serving as the Irregular Warfare Policy Chief within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC). In this role, he led the Department’s policy efforts to address gray zone and irregular challenges from nation-state competitors, and provided oversight of special operations activities in Europe and the Indo-Pacific. He also led the development of the Irregular Warfare Annex to the 2018 National Defense Strategy. Previously, he served in Kabul with the Special Operations Joint Task Force – Afghanistan (SOJTF-A) as an analyst and advisor to the commander of US and NATO special operations from 2014 to 2015. Prior to joining RAND, he worked for IBM as an advanced analytics consultant. He graduated with his Masters of Public Policy from the College of William & Mary, and an A.B. in Economics with Honors also from William & Mary.

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