Careers and Future Challenges in Nonproliferation: Perspectives from Women Leaders in the Field

Arms control and nonproliferation together represent one of the most contentious and technically challenging areas of national security and international politics, frequently interweaving high-technology, U.S. foreign policy, international law, and complicated regional dynamics.  A panel of accomplished women leaders in nuclear arms control and nonproliferation will reflect on the state of their field in a time of profound and growing challenges, and will discuss both their own careers and enduring problems around which future policy and technical careers can be built.  This event is co-sponsored by the Jackson School of International Studies, the UW student chapter of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Panelists:

Ambassador Laura Holgate was U.S. Representative to the Vienna Office of the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency from July 2016 to January 2017.  She previously served in the Obama Administration as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism and Threat Reduction on the National Security Council. Some of her earlier roles included being a Vice President for Russia/New Independent States Programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, Director for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fissile Materials Disposition, and Special Coordinator for Cooperative Threat Reduction at the Department for Defense helping to oversee the “Nunn-Lugar” Cooperative Threat Reduction program.

Dr. Mona Dreicer is Deputy Director of the Center for Global Security Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).  Her extensive work at LLNL has focused on nonproliferation, including international material protection and threat reduction, verification and safeguards technology, nonproliferation regimes and policy analysis, and international engagement. Dreicer previously served as Director of the Office of Nuclear Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, where she was involved in assessing compliance with nuclear arms control treaties and worked to ensure effective verification of nonproliferation agreements.  Some of her prior roles include work at other national laboratories and federal agencies, as well as at the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Dr. Tammy Taylor is Chief Operating Officer for the National Security Directorate of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where she provides technical and managerial leadership for three technical divisions and four project management offices with 1,000 science and engineering staff and a $500 million annual budget. She previously held multiple leadership positions at Los Alamos National Laboratory and at the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President, dealing with issues as varied as stewardship of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile and nuclear defense research for Science Advisors to Presidents Obama and George W. Bush