Rebecca Zimmerman

Rebecca Zimmerman is the Strategic Challenge Integration Officer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), helping shape and integrate across APL’s Strategic Challenges and connecting emerging national security priorities with institutional investments, partnerships, and strategic initiatives. Previously, she served as senior strategist in APL’s Homeland Defense Mission Area. In government, Ms. Zimmerman advised the secretary of war on a range of key issues, serving as acting assistant secretary of war for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs, as deputy assistant secretary of war (DASW) for homeland defense integration and defense support to civil authorities, and as DASW for Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia. At the RAND Corporation, she spent nearly three years deployed to Afghanistan and authored studies on U.S. military service culture and interservice competition, competition with China and Russia, and soldier attrition. She is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a senior fellow at the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Homeland Defense Institute. Ms. Zimmerman holds a B.A. in international relations with honors from Stanford University and an M.A. in strategic studies and international economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She is a recipient of the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal.