Board Member

Janet A. Napolitano

Janet A. Napolitano

Professor of Public Policy, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley

Janet Napolitano is a Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy, and the Founder and Faculty Director of the Center for Security in Politics at UC Berkeley. She served as the twentieth president of the University of California, the nation’s largest public research university with ten campuses, five medical centers, three affiliated national laboratories, and a statewide agriculture and natural resources program. Prior to joining the University of California, Napolitano served as Secretary of Homeland Security from 2009 to 2013. She is a former two-term governor of Arizona, a former attorney general of Arizona, and a former U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona. Napolitano serves as a board member for RAND Corporation, VIR Biotechnologies, Zoom, and the International Rescue Committee. She also serves on the Council of the American Law Institute, and the INTEL Government Affairs Advisory Committee. In 2022, President Biden appointed Napolitano to the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. In 2019, Napolitano published H ow Safe Are We? Homeland Security Since 9/11. Professor Napolitano earned her B.S. degree, summa cum laude, in Political Science from Santa Clara University, and her J.D. from the University of Virginia. She is based in Berkeley, CA.

Top Stories on CFR

Russia

Liana Fix, a fellow for Europe at CFR, and Thomas Graham, a distinguished fellow at CFR, sit down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the future of U.S. policy toward Russia and the risks posed by heightened tensions between two nuclear powers. This episode is the first in a special TPI series on the U.S. 2024 presidential election and is supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Terrorism and Counterterrorism

Violence around U.S. elections in 2024 could not only destabilize American democracy but also embolden autocrats across the world. Jacob Ware recommends that political leaders take steps to shore up civic trust and remove the opportunity for violence ahead of the 2024 election season.

China

Those seeking to profit from fentanyl and governments seeking to control its supply are locked in a never-ending competition, with each new countermeasure spurring further innovation to circumvent it.