Department of Defense

Bio, via Department of Defense:

The son of an Army artillery commander he spent his youth at Fort Bragg. He has more than 20 years of experience at the national and international level. During the George W. Bush Administration, Mr. Wilkie served both Robert Gates and Donald Rumsfeld as Assistant Secretary of Defense from 2005-2009, and was the youngest senior leader in the Department. Prior to his first Pentagon tour, he was Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and a senior director of the National Security Council under Dr. Condoleezza Rice. Mr. Wilkie also has extensive experience in the United States Congress including recent service as Senior Advisor to Senator Thom Tillis as well as being Counsel and Advisor on International Security Affairs to the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, the Honorable Trent Lott. He had a five-year tour as Vice President for Strategic Programs for CH2M HILL one of the world’s largest engineering and program management firms, where at various times he had program management and advisory assignments as diverse as the London 2012 and the reform and reorganization of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense Supply and Logistics System (DE&S). Mr. Wilkie is a reserve officer in the United States Air Force Reserve assigned to the Office of the Chief of Staff. Prior to joining the Air Force, he served in the United States Navy Reserve with the Joint Forces Intelligence Command, Naval Special Warfare Group Two and the Office of Naval Intelligence. A graduate of the College of Naval Command and Staff, Air Command and Staff College, the United States Army War College, and the Joint Forces Staff College, Mr. Wilkie has published articles in the Naval War College Review, Parameters, Armed Forces Journal International, The Air and Space Power Journal and Proceedings. He holds personal and unit decorations as well as the Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest civilian award of the Department. Mr. Wilkie also shepherded the Senate confirmation process for James Mattis, Robert Gates, Admiral Mike Mullen (CJCS) and was responsible for the preparation of General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Croker for their multiple appearances before the Congress in defense of the Iraqi Surge. Mr. Wilkie holds an Honors degree from Wake Forest University; Juris Doctor from Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans; Master of Laws in International and Comparative Law from Georgetown University and a Masters in Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College.

Bio, via Washington and Lee University, The Williams School of Economics, Commerce and Politics via Internet Archive:

Thomas Williams is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics at Washington & Lee University. Before arriving at W&L, he was a Ph.D. candidate and James Hart Fellow at Johns Hopkins University. Prior to JHU, he was a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. His teaching and research interests are geopolitics, international relations, and civil war, and his most recent work focuses on the global patterns of civil war.

Bio, via U.S. House of Representatives:

An Air Force Academy graduate, Rhodes Scholar, and former National Security Council staff member, Heather Wilson was the first woman veteran of the U.S. armed services to serve in the U.S. Congress and only the second woman to represent New Mexico in Congress.1 Heather A. Wilson was born on December 30, 1960, in Keene, New Hampshire. During her junior year in Keene High School, the U.S. Air Force Academy began admitting women. Wilson, who hoped to become a pilot, like her father and grandfather, entered the academy and graduated in 1982. She earned a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University where, by 1985, she earned a master’s and a doctorate in international relations. Wilson served in the Air Force until 1989 when she joined the National Security Council staff as director for European Defense Policy and Arms Control. In 1991, she married lawyer Jay Hone, and the couple settled in New Mexico. They raised three children: Scott, Joshua, and Caitlin. Wilson then started a consulting firm and, from 1995 to 1998, served in the governor’s cabinet as secretary of the New Mexico children, youth and families department. When New Mexico’s Albuquerque Congressman Steven H. Schiff declared he would not run for re–election in the fall of 1998 because of his battle with skin cancer, Wilson resigned her cabinet post and entered the Republican primary. She won the support of Schiff and U.S. Senator Pete V. Domenici, who lent her several trusted aides and called her “the most brilliantly qualified House candidate anywhere in the country.”2 But Schiff’s death in March necessitated a June 23 special election. With Domenici’s support, Wilson became the Republican candidate for the special election, propelling her to a sizable win in the June 2 primary for the fall election against conservative state senator William F. Davis. Three weeks later, Wilson won the special election (with 45 percent of the vote) in a three–way race against millionaire Democratic state senator Phillip J. Maloof and Green Party candidate Robert L. Anderson. She was sworn into office on June 25, 1998, making her the first woman since Georgia Lusk in 1946, and the first Republican woman ever, to represent New Mexico.3 The special election was but a preview for the fall election for the full two–year term. In both races, Wilson’s slogan “fighting for our families” encompassed an agenda including better public schools, elimination of the marriage penalty, and an elimination of estate taxes. Both races were contentious and costly. For the June 23 special election Maloof spent $3.1 million and portrayed Wilson as an outsider. Leading up to the November 1998 general election, Maloof spent an additional $5 million to Wilson’s $1.1 million, making it the most expensive House race in New Mexico’s history. Wilson prevailed, with 48 percent of the vote. She won her 2000 re–election bid by a seven–point margin over her Democratic challenger. In 2002, she defeated Democrat Richard Romero with 55 percent to 45 percent of the vote. Two years later, she defeated Romero by a similar margin to earn a seat in the 109th Congress (2005–2007). In 2006, when Republicans lost the majority in the House, Wilson faced her stiffest electoral challenge, defeating Democratic candidate Patricia Madrid by 861 votes out of more than 211,000 cast.4 When Wilson took her seat in the House in 1998, she received assignments on the Commerce Committee (later renamed Energy and Commerce), including its subcommittees on Telecommunication, Energy and Air Quality, and Environment and Hazardous Materials. She remained on that panel for the duration of her House career. Wilson also won an additional seat on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. But she left that assignment in the 107th Congress (2001–2003) for a seat on the powerful Armed Services Committee. Armed Services offered her a prime vantage point from which to oversee personnel and infrastructure issues at two installations in her district: Kirtland Air Force Base and the Sandia National Lab. In the 109th Congress, Wilson left Armed Services to return to the Intelligence Committee, where she chaired the Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence. Wilson’s reputation in Congress was that of a moderate Republican who was not reluctant to take positions independent of her party. She called for a simplification of the tax codes and became one of the GOP’s point persons in the House to criticize the American bombing campaign in Kosovo. But on social issues, she was more moderate than many of her GOP colleagues. She supported requiring federal workers’ health plans to cover contraceptive coverage (although she opposed using public money to pay for abortions) and also voted down an amendment that would have banned adoptions by gay parents in the District of Columbia. She also opposed a plan by the Republican leadership to move management of the nuclear weapons program (largely based in New Mexico) from the Department of Energy to the Pentagon.5 In 2006, Wilson led efforts to ensure congressional oversight of the President’s terrorist surveillance program. Wilson chose not to seek re–election to a sixth term in the House, and instead announced her intention to run in 2008 for an open U.S. Senate seat being vacated by longtime New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici. Wilson narrowly lost the Republican primary and retired from the House at the conclusion of the 110th Congress on January 3, 2009.

Bio, via Linktank:

Bryn Woollacott recently received her Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy with a specialization in International Security and Economic Policy. Originally from Los Angeles, she received her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Maryland in 2014 as a part of the BA/MPP dual-degree program. Her research interests combine nuclear security, defense policy, acquisition practices, and capability modernization. Most recently, she has been a Nuclear Scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and as a Lockheed Martin Sponsored Graduate Research Associate for the Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise. Woollacott has served in a variety of other capacities in Washington D.C., including as an intern for the State Department, Treasury Department, Department of Homeland Security, and the House of Representatives. Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy with a specialization in International Security and Economic Policy. Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Maryland in 2014