Lisa Saum-Manning is the associate director of the International Security and Defense Policy Program, a senior political scientist at RAND, and a professor of policy analysis at the RAND School of Public Policy. Her research interests focus on aspects of strategic planning for the U.S. Armed Forces and U.S. Department of State, including security cooperation, space, conflict prevention in fragile countries, unconventional warfare, and WMD nonproliferation. Saum-Manning recently served an appointment as a senior advisor to the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Conflict Stabilization Operations as the office implements the congressionally-mandated Global Fragility Act. Additional recent field research focuses on building sustainable security capacity in Africa, Central and South America, and disaster recovery in Puerto Rico. Saum-Manning's career trajectory at RAND began with a deployment to Afghanistan where she served as an analyst for the Commanding General of the Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command (CFSOCC-A). Her role was to provide research and analysis on capacity-building and development in Afghanistan. Prior to RAND, Saum-Manning worked in the Nonproliferation and National Security Division at Brookhaven National Laboratory where her research assessed 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
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