Juliette N. Kayyem

Juliette Kayyem is the Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs. From 2007-2009, she served as Massachusetts' first Undersecretary for Homeland Security.

Earlier in her career, Kayyem was "a Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Since 2001, Ms. Kayyem has been a resident scholar at the Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, serving most recently as Executive Director for Research where she oversaw the Center's substantive activities in international security, environment and energy policy. She is an expert in homeland security and terrorism, with a particular focus on the intersection of democracy and counter-terrorism policies. She teaches courses on law, homeland security and national security.

"Ms. Kayyem has an extensive background in terrorism and national security affairs. From 1999-2000, she served as former House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt's appointee to the National Commission on Terrorism, a congressionally-mandated review of how the government could better prepare for the growing terrorist threat. Chaired by L. Paul Bremer, that Commission’s recommendations in the year 2000 urged the nation to recognize and adapt to the growing tide of terrorist activity against the United States. Before that, she served as a legal adviser to then Attorney General Janet Reno, where she worked on a variety of national security and terrorism cases. In that capacity, she oversaw the government’s review of its classification procedures regarding secret evidence. Ms. Kayyem began her legal career as a trial lawyer, litigating cases throughout the United States on behalf of the Justice Department. She has also worked in death penalty appeals cases on behalf of Alabama death row inmates and, before going to law school, as a journalist in South Africa.

"She is co-author of Preserving Liberty in an Age of Terror (MIT Press, 2005) and editor of First to Arrive: State and Local Responses to Terrorism (MIT Press, 2003), as well as the author of numerous journal, magazine and newspaper articles. She testifies frequently before Congress and serves on the board of advisers to a number of governmental and private institutions. In 2002, she was named a “hero for our times” by the Boston Phoenix. She has been the subject of numerous profiles from Index Magazine, to the Boston Globe, to Vanity Fair Magazine.

"Ms. Kayyem is also a national security analyst for NBC News.

"A 1995 graduate of Harvard Law School, she lives in Cambridge with her husband, David Barron, a Harvard law professor, and their two children." 

She is a trustee of the Third Way organization and a commissioner for the Report of the National Commission on Terrorism.


 * Advisor, Americans for Informed Democracy
 * Director, Belfer Center
 * Director, Human Rights First