APL Colloquium

April 8, 2016

Colloquium Topic: X11 Strategy Analysis – What We Learned in 2015

APL’s X11 program of research is designed to produce rigorous analyses on strategic issues of importance across the Lab. In 2015, the program produced insightful results in the areas of the future Navy fleet, theater nuclear weapons, “technology on the shelf,” homeland defense and response, and more. Fox’s presentation will present the highlights of these studies and share plans for the 2016 program of research.



Colloquium Speaker: Christine Fox

Hon. Christine H. Fox became the Assistant Director for Policy and Analysis at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory on May 12, 2014.  Previously, she served as Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense between December 2013 and May 2014.  With her appointment, Ms. Fox became the highest-ranking female official in history to serve in the Department of Defense. 

Until August 2013, Ms. Fox served as the Director, Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.  She was appointed to that position in November 2009.  A presidential appointee confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Ms. Fox served as the principal staff assistant to the Secretary of Defense for analyzing and evaluating plans, programs, and budgets in relation to U.S. defense objectives and resource constraints.

Ms. Fox possesses three decades of experience as an analyst and research manager focusing on defense issues, with a special emphasis on operations. She formerly served as the President of the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), a Federally Funded Research and Development Center, and as the scientific analyst to the Chief of Naval Operations. Prior to her appointment as President of CNA, Ms. Fox was the Vice President and Director of CNA’s Operations Evaluation Group, responsible for approximately 85 field representatives focused on helping operational commanders execute their missions. She oversaw CNA’s analysis of real-world operations, including the operations in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, operations in Afghanistan immediately following the September 11th attacks, and the operation in Iraq in early 2003.

Ms. Fox served as a member of NASA’s Return to Flight Task Group, chartered by the NASA Administrator to certify the recommendations made by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. She was also a member of the Advisory Board of the Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, from 2007 until 2009.

Ms. Fox received a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and a Master of Science degree in applied mathematics from George Mason University.