Lisa Saum-Manning is an associate director of the International Security and Defense Policy Program within the RAND National Security Research Division and a professor of policy analysis at Pardee RAND Graduate School. She recently served as a senior advisor to the Assistant Secretary of State for the Conflict and Stabilization Office. Her research focuses on strategic planning for the U.S. Armed Forces, Department of State, and Department of Homeland Security to include: security cooperation, conflict and stability, counterinsurgency, deterrence, diversity/recruitment/retention challenges, and hurricane disaster recovery in Puerto Rico. Saum-Manning's primary research focuses on optimizing the use of ally and partner military force capabilities through security cooperation efforts in Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Indo Pacific region. She has extensive experience engaging with U.S. and partner nation officials. In Africa, she conducted field work in East Africa, evaluating U.S. military efforts to build partner logistics capacity for UN peacekeepers deploying to Somalia. She also taught CIV-MIL engagement courses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the Western Hemisphere, she spent 7 months deployed to Puerto Rico to support FEMA's hurricane recovery efforts; co-presented a course on Strategic Intelligence in Colombia for Colombian intelligence officials; and traveled to Guatemala to assess U.S. security cooperation efforts. In South Asia, Saum-Manning spent four months deployed to Afghanistan as an analyst for the Commanding General of the Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command. Additional research includes: enhancing DHS homeland security efforts against domestic terrorism, security cooperation workforce development, space and WMD deterrence, and diversity challenges for the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Coast Guard and the Los Angeles Fire Department. Prior to RAND, Saum-Manning worked in the Nonproliferation and National Security Division at Brookhaven National Laboratory assessing nuclear infrastructure capacity-building in developing countries. She received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Ph.D. in political science, University of California, Los Angeles; B.A. in Spanish, Ohio State University
