APL Senior Fellows are distinguished experts in national security and space who work together with technical experts at the Laboratory to better inform technology and policy decisions made by U.S. military leaders and senior government officials.
For information on the Senior Fellows, please contact:
Geoff Brown, Office of Communications and Public Affairs
Geoffrey.Brown@jhuapl.edu
General John R. Allen is president of the Brookings Institution. He served as the commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan and deputy commander of U.S. Central Command prior to his retirement from the Marine Corps. He remained a senior advisor to the secretary of defense on Middle East security after his retirement, eventually being called on to serve as the special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIL.
Dr. Richard J. Danzig has been a consultant to U.S. intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense on national security issues. He served as the seventy-first secretary of the Navy from November 1998 to January 2001. He was the under secretary of the Navy from 1993 to 1997. From the spring of 2007 through the presidential election of 2008, Dr. Danzig was a senior advisor to then-Senator Barack Obama on national security issues. He has served as a director of National Semiconductor Corporation and Human Genome Sciences Corporation and on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and the secretary of defense’s Defense Policy Board.
Dr. Phil E. DePoy spent four decades associated with the Center for Naval Analyses, rising through the ranks to become president and chief executive officer. He later became president of NORC at the University of Chicago, and he was founding director of the Wayne E. Meyer Institute of Systems Engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School. He most recently served as chairman of the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee.
Ms. Lisa S. Disbrow has thirty-two years of service in national security, including Senior Executive Service, U.S. Air Force active and reserve service, and, most recently, as the under secretary of the Air Force (2015–2017) and then acting secretary of the Air Force (January 2015 to June 2017). Other assignments include vice director, Force Structure, Resources, and Assessment (J-8) on the Joint Staff; special director for policy implementation on the president’s national security staff at the White House; and a senior systems engineer at the National Reconnaissance Office. She is currently an independent director on the board of Mercury Systems; Perspecta; Sequa Corp.; LMI; HENSOLDT, Inc.; the Air Force Association; and the Wounded Warrior Project.
Mr. James R. Gosler is one of the nation’s foremost experts on cybersecurity and information operations. He served more than three decades in various cyber- and nuclear weapon-related positions at Sandia National Laboratories. During his Sandia career, he was invited by the National Security Agency to serve as the lab’s first visiting scientist, he created and led the Vulnerability Assessments Program, and, in 2003, he was appointed Sandia’s sixth fellow. Mr. Gosler previously served as the first director of the Clandestine Information Technology Office at the Central Intelligence Agency. He is a member of the Defense Science Board and a former member of the Naval Studies Board and the NSA Advisory Board.
Ms. Avril D. Haines is currently at Columbia University working on Columbia World Projects, in addition to being a lecturer at the law school. She is a former deputy national security advisor with wide-ranging expertise in policy, strategy, and law. Just before her tenure as deputy national security advisor to President Barack Obama, Haines served as the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency and as a legal advisor to the National Security Council. Before joining the National Security Council, she led the treaty office at the Department of State and was the deputy chief counsel for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III is president of SJL Global Insights LLC. He served nearly forty years in the U.S. Navy as a surface warfare officer, rising to become commander of U.S. Pacific Command. Among his many command positions at sea, he served as commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet, and commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe, U.S. Naval Forces Africa, and NATO’s Allied Joint Force Command. Ashore, Admiral Locklear served as head of the Navy programming and assessment divisions; the 78th commandant of midshipmen, U.S. Naval Academy; and director, Navy Staff.
Dr. James N. Miller is president and chief executive officer of Adaptive Strategies, LLC. He is known for his expertise and leadership in nuclear deterrence, missile defense, space policy, and cyber warfare. As under secretary of defense for policy from 2012 to 2014, Dr. Miller served as the principal civilian advisor to the secretary of defense on strategy, policy, and operations, working to strengthen relations with allies and partners in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and to reduce the risks of miscommunication with Russia and China. He served as principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy from 2009 to 2012.
Admiral John M. Richardson served as the 31st Chief of Naval Operations from September 2015 to August 2019. Admiral Richardson served on both fast attack and ballistic missile submarines and commanded the USS Honolulu (SSN 718) in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He also commanded Submarine Development Squadron 12, Submarine Group 8, NATO Submarine Allied Naval Forces South and the U.S. Navy Submarine Force. Before becoming CNO, he was the Director of the Naval Reactors. Richardson’s staff assignments include naval aide to the president, teacher for prospective submarine commanding officers, Joint Staff Operations Directorate, and Director of Strategy and Policy at U.S. Joint Forces Command.
Admiral James G. Stavridis is an operating executive of the Carlyle Group, following five years as the dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He led the NATO alliance in global operations from 2009 to 2013 as supreme allied commander and also served as commander of U.S. Southern Command, with responsibility for all military operations in Latin America, from 2006 to 2009. He was the longest-serving combatant commander in recent U.S. history. He is NBC News chief international analyst and a monthly columnist for Time. He holds a PhD in international relations and has published nine books, as well as serving as chair of the U.S. Naval Institute.
Dr. Paul N. Stockton is the managing director of Sonecon, LLC. Before joining Sonecon, Dr. Stockton was the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and Americas’ security affairs (May 2009 to January 2013). In that position, he was responsible for defense critical infrastructure protection and defense continuity of operations, and was the principal civilian advisor to the secretary of defense for providing Department of Defense assistance in Superstorm Sandy and other disasters. Dr. Stockton founded the Center for Homeland Defense and Security and served as the associate provost of the Naval Postgraduate School.
Former deputy secretary of defense Robert O. Work was the Defense Department’s second-ranking civilian leader from 2014 until 2017, after a term as under secretary of the Navy from 2009 to 2013. He served twenty-seven years in the U.S. Marine Corps, retiring as a colonel after holding a wide range of command, leadership, and management positions. He has also been chief executive officer of the Center for a New American Security, vice president for strategic studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, and an adjunct professor at George Washington University.