Policy Expertise.
I am very comfortable in policy roles with significant legal components, like my work as Senior Advisor for International Humanitarian Policy, in which I drew on my background in International Humanitarian Law to consider and propose the best among legally permissible options. I also enjoy legal roles with major policy components, such as my job as Special Assistant to the Army General Counsel, in which I was asked to explain the law to and work closely with policy colleagues to develop options.
I like working in teams and learning from others. After listening and observing carefully, I am able to isolate points of agreement and work sensitively to iron out disagreements. I consider building consensus across disparate functions and generating buy-in to be among my specialities. The best example of this work was my leadership of the Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems working group, which required me to wrangle technical experts, scientists, attorneys, and analysts from different organizations with the Department of Defense as well as counterparts from the Department of State and Intelligence Community, all with different points of view. After we all agreed, I coordinated our position with the White House, then built alliances with international stakeholders to ensure our position carried the day at the United Nations.
Often, I have achieved excellent results in response to a crisis about which I initially have only superficial knowledge. I can rapidly develop working expertise on a new issue, identify and assemble the right subject matter experts to inform the process, gather a team to generate and assess options, present a suite of responses to leadership, and execute the approved plan. I did this many times, including leading the Army’s Installation Security Working Group following a fatal shooting at the Washington Navy Yard and organizing a review of medical procedures following a cluster of patient deaths in Army hospitals.