Heather Hurlburt

Heather Hurlburt is the Executive Director of the National Security Network, a progressive nonprofit which develops and promotes for experts and non-experts alike national security policies that are both pragmatic and principled. From 2002-2008, Hurlburt ran her own communications and strategy practice, working on global and political issues with political, entertainment, and educational leaders, as well as groups such as DATA (Debt AIDS Trade Africa), the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Stanley Foundation, and many others. Previously, she was deputy director of the Washington office of the International Crisis Group, creating and implementing its Washington outreach around global conflict prevention and crisis recovery. From 1995-2001, Hurlburt served in the Clinton Administration as Special Assistant and Speechwriter to President Clinton, speechwriter for Secretaries of State Albright and Christopher, and member of the State Department's Policy Planning staff. She has also worked for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and she began her career in Washington at the Congressional Helsinki Commission, where she served as a member of the US delegation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and an adviser to Congress on European human rights, security and conflict resolution issues. In that capacity, she was part of the US negotiating team, observed elections and helped lead human rights seminars in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and the Balkans.

She is a Senior Adviser to the U.S. in the World Project of Demos, appears frequently as a commentator in print and new media, and is a regular guest on Robert Wright's Bloggingheads.tv. Hurlburt holds a BA from Brown University and an MA from the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs.