9 February 2021-20 January 2025
Kathleen H. Hicks was born on 25 September 1970 in Fairfield, California. She earned an AB from Mount Holyoke College in 1991, an MPA in public management from the University of Maryland in 1993, and a PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010. Dr. Hicks began her government service by holding several leadership roles within the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 1993 until 2005. She joined the Senior Executive Service (SES) in 2005, and served concurrently as the director for strategy, and as chief of staff of the Quadrennial Defense Review Roles, Missions and Organizations Integrated Process Team. In August 2006, she became a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Dr. Hicks returned to the Department of Defense in February 2009 as the deputy under secretary of defense for strategy, plans, and forces. In 2012, she served as the principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy.
From 2013 until her confirmation as Deputy Secretary of Defense on 8 February 2021, Dr. Hicks served concurrently as senior vice president, as the Henry A. Kissinger chair, and as director for the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and as the Donald Marron Scholar at the Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.
Dr. Hicks also served as the lead for the Department of Defense Review Team for President-elect Joseph R. Biden, Jr. from November 2020 until 20 January 2021. She became the 35th Deputy Secretary of Defense on 9 February 2021 and is the first woman confirmed to this position. She served the entire four years of the administration of President Joseph R. Biden Jr.