Jane Harman

Jane Harman resigned from Congress on Feb. 28, 2009 to join the Woodrow Wilson Center as Director, President and CEO. Representing the aerospace center of California during nine terms in Congress, she served on all the major security committees: six years on Armed Services, eight years on Intelligence and four on Homeland Security. She has made numerous Congressional fact-finding missions to hotspots around the world including North Korea, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Guantanamo Bay to assess threats against the U.S. During her long public career, she has been recognized as a national expert at the nexus of security and public policy issues. Harman received the Defense Department Medal for Distinguished Service in 1998, the CIA Seal Medal in 2007 and the National Intelligence Distinguished Public Service Medal in March 2011. A product of Los Angeles public schools, Harman is a magna cum laude graduate of Smith College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and Harvard Law School. Prior to serving in Congress, she was a top aide in the United States Senate, Deputy Cabinet Secretary to President Jimmy Carter, Special Counsel to the Department of Defense and in private law practice. She was married for over three decades to Sidney Harman, founder and Chairman Emeritus of Harman International Industries and former Chairman of Newsweek magazine, and has four adult children and three grandchildren.