Kathleen Hicks
Kathleen Hicks brings decades of strategic and operational experience to Commonweal. She is an independent board director and strategic advisor for companies across a range of technology sectors.
She is also a seasoned speaker and writer, with appointments as Distinguished Council Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center, a Senior Fellow at Johns Hopkins University’s Kissinger Center, and a member of the MIT Corporation Political Science Department Visiting Committee. Hicks co-chairs the Atlantic Council’s ReForge Commission, aimed at strengthening U.S. economic and industrial capabilities for defense, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
From 2021 to 2025, Hicks served as the 35th U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense — the chief operating officer in charge of day-to-day global operations for the nation’s largest and most complex employer. Her tenure focused on driving value through innovations that supported warfighters, reformed business operations, enhanced talent management, and improved service member and family resilience. She launched innovation accelerators that significantly reduced delivery timelines for critical capabilities, accelerated advanced computing, promoted responsible AI, and substantially expanded partnerships with non-traditional companies.
Rising from an intern to the senior ranks of the civil service, Hicks worked for both Democratic and Republican administrations before serving as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans, and Forces and as Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in the Obama Administration. She has been unanimously confirmed twice by the United States Senate. Hicks has previously served on the board of trustees of the Aerospace Corporation and the board of directors of the U.S. Naval Institute.
Hicks earned her Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, her M.P.A. from the University of Maryland, and her bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College.