Distinguished Visiting Fellow Robert Orton Work

Robert O. Work served as deputy secretary of defense from 2014-2017. He is currently senior counselor for defense and distinguished senior fellow for defense and national security at the Center for a New American Security, where he was previously the chief executive cfficer. From 2009 to 2013, Secretary Work served as the undersecretary of the Navy. In 2008, he was on President-elect Barack Obama’s Department of Defense Transition Team as leader of the Department of the Navy issues team. Prior to the Obama administration, after spending 27 years on active duty in the US Marine Corps and retiring as a colonel, Work spent time first as a senior fellow and later as vice president for strategic studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the US Naval Institute, and the Marine Corps Association. Secretary Work received his BS from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, an MS in systems management from the University of Southern California, an MS in systems technology from the Naval Postgraduate School, and a master's in international public policy from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.