Carnegie Mellon University
November 30, 2016

Trump Selects Kiron Skinner for Presidential Transition Team’s Executive Committee

By Shilo Rea

Kiron Skinner headshot

Kiron Skinner, founding director of the Institute for Politics and Strategy in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, has been selected to serve on President-Elect Donald J. Trump's executive committee for his transition team.

Last week, Skinner joined Trump's transition team for the National Security Council.

A CMU faculty member since 1999, Skinner is a distinguished fellow of CMU's CyLab and holds courtesy faculty appointments in Heinz College and the Institute for Software Research.

The Institute for Politics and Strategy serves as a center for research, undergraduate and graduate education, and university-wide initiatives in the fields of political science, international relations, national security policy and grand strategy.

Skinner directs the Center for International Relations and Politics, Washington Semester Program and Institute for Strategic Analysis, a joint effort between Dietrich College, College of Engineering, Heinz College, School of Computer Science, and the Software Engineering Institute. She also co-created CMU's Master of Information Technology Strategy program, which provides a multidisciplinary education focusing on cybersecurity issues, decision-making challenges and international security.

Skinner currently serves as special adviser to Admiral John Richardson, the Chief of Naval Operations, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a life director of the Atlantic Council, and is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. From 2001-2007, she was a member of the U.S. Defense Department's Defense Policy Board as an adviser on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

She is the co-author, along with political scientists Serhiy Kudelia, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Condoleezza Rice, of "The Strategy of Campaigning: Lessons from Ronald Reagan and Boris Yeltsin," which is now used in political science courses at leading research universities. She authored "Turning Points in Ending the Cold War, a landmark work in international history featuring a collection of essays by leading American and Russian statesmen and scholars. She co-authored the New York Times best sellers "Reagan, In His Own Hand" and "Reagan, A Life In Letters." She is a frequent contributor of opinion essays and has written for CNN.com, National Review online, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.

Skinner earned masters and doctoral degrees in political science and international relations from Harvard University and undergraduate degrees from Spelman College and Sacramento City College. She received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Molloy College in Long Island, New York.