For Immediate Release
April 2, 2018
Contact: Audel Shokohzadeh, [email protected], 202.478.3419
The Stimson Center announced today that Melanie Sisson will join the Stimson Center as a Senior Associate and lead the newly founded Defense Strategy and Planning program. The Defense Strategy and Planning program will focus on providing decisionmakers objective analyses that can guide choices about how best to use U.S. military forces to achieve foreign policy and security objectives.
“I could not be more pleased to welcome Melanie to the Stimson team,” said Stimson Managing Director Rachel Stohl. “In a time where the United States is engaged in multiple theaters around the world, the need to identify the best use of resources and achieve desired outcomes is more important than ever. Sisson’s expertise in defense strategy and planning will help military leaders and policymakers identify the ways in which our military forces can effectively and efficiently achieve their objectives and goals.”
Prior to joining Stimson, Sisson was a Senior Associate with the RAND Corporation, where she conducted research on force planning, strategic approaches to countering domestic and international terrorism, covert operations, and enhancing planning and management processes within the Department of Defense. She is a former member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and an MA from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.
“Led by Stimson co-founder Barry Blechman, the Stimson Center has made important contributions to our understanding of how to use the U.S. armed forces effectively within a complex and ever-changing international political environment,” said Melanie Sisson. “I am delighted to continue in that tradition, and to join Rachel, Barry, Stimson President and CEO Brian Finlay, and the entire Stimson team to work on pragmatic solutions to promote security and prosperity.”
The Stimson Center is a nonpartisan policy research center working to protect people, preserve the planet, and promote security & prosperity.