Mara Rudman
Diplomat in Residence
School of International Service
Bio
Mara Rudman founded and runs Quorum Strategies, providing global risk assessment, mitigation and advising services, change management and operations, political, legislative, and communications strategies. She is concurrently a Diplomat in Residence at American University, and also has taught a Middle East focused national security seminar at Dartmouth College. Her government positions have included serving as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs for Presidents Obama and Clinton, deputy envoy and chief of staff for the Office of the Special Envoy for Middle East Peace at the State Department, and Assistant Administrator for the Middle East at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). In addition, she has been a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, focusing on national security issues, with a particular focus on the Middle East. Rudman also has worked as a vice president and general counsel for The Cohen Group, a Washington-based consultancy founded by former Secretary of Defense William Cohen. Earlier in her career, Ms. Rudman was chief counsel to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, working for Chairman and then Ranking Member Lee Hamilton. She is a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and a summa cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College.
