Avril Haines most recently served as the U.S. Director of National Intelligence (DNI). In this position, Haines was a member of the Cabinet, led the United States Intelligence Community, which consists of 18 different elements, and served as the principal intelligence adviser to the President of the United States.
Over the course of her career, Haines has served in intelligence, policy, and legal roles across the U.S. government, including as Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy National Security Advisor, Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and Legal Adviser to the National Security Council.
She also served in academia, as a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University and a Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. She received her bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Chicago, received a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, and founded and ran a bookstore café for five years while engaged in community service in Baltimore.
She was additionally appointed by the President in 2017 to be a Member of the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service, and has served on a number of boards and advisory groups over the years, including the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s Bio Advisory Group, the Board of Trustees for the Vodafone Foundation, and the Refugees International Advisory Council.