Kathleen J. McInnis is a director and senior fellow of the Smart Women, Smart Power Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Her research areas include the intersection of gender and national security; global security strategy; defense policy; and transatlantic security. Before rejoining the Center, she served as a specialist in international security at the Congressional Research Service (CRS), where she served as a senior expert to Congress on strategic issues including defense policy, military operations, civilian-military relations, irregular warfare, and global strategy. Prior to CRS, she worked as a research consultant at Chatham House in London, writing on NATO and transatlantic security matters. From 2006 to 2009, Dr. McInnis served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Policy), working on NATO operations in Afghanistan. During her last time working at CSIS from 2004 to 2006, Dr. McInnis analyzed U.S. nuclear weapons strategy, European security, and transatlantic relations. She also worked as a researcher in the UK House of Commons, focusing on NATO, the European Union, and U.S.-UK political-military relations, from 2001 to 2003. Dr. McInnis is widely published; her articles have featured in major domestic and international outlets. She is the author of two books: How and Why States Defect from Contemporary Military Coalition (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) and the novel The Heart of War: Misadventures in the Pentagon (Post Hill Press, 2018). Dr. McInnis was awarded her MSc in international relations from the London School of Economics and completed her PhD in war studies at King’s College London.
Carrie Filipetti currently serves as the Executive Director of the Vandenberg Coalition. Prior to this role, Carrie served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Cuba and Venezuela in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs and the Deputy Special Representative for Venezuela at the U.S. Department of State, for which she received a Superior Honor Award. From 2019-2020, Carrie also served as the Senior Advisor to the Havana Incidents Task Force, where she was responsible for coordinating an inter-agency effort to address the causes of unexplained health incidents affecting U.S. personnel, and identifying proper long-term care mechanisms. Prior to these roles, Carrie served as a Senior Policy Advisor for the United States Mission to the United Nations (USUN), where she advised U.S. Ambassador Nikki R. Haley on issues related to counterterrorism, the Middle East, and the Western Hemisphere.
Arancha González Laya is the Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po.
Ms. González was Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain (2020-July 2021). She served as United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of the International Trade Centre, the joint trade development agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation (2013 to 2019). Between 2005 and 2013 Ms. González was Chief of Staff to World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy and his representative (Sherpa) at the G-20.
Prior to that Ms. González held several positions at the European Commission in the area of external relations. Ms. González began her career as an associate in a German law firm advising companies on trade, competition and state-aid matters.
She serves in the Mission Committee of Danone and is a member of the International Advisory Council of the European House-Ambrosetti.
A Spanish national, Ms. González holds a degree in law from the University of Navarra and a postgraduate degree in European Law from the University of Carlos III, Madrid.
Lucy Fyler is the Senior Communications Manager for GMF, based out of Washington, DC.