Janine A. Davidson

Janine Davidson
32nd Under Secretary of the Navy
Incumbent
Assumed office March 17, 2016
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Thomas Hicks (Acting)
Personal details
Born	Janine Anne Davidson April 14, 1966
Alma mater	University of Colorado at Boulder University of South Carolina

Janine Anne Davidson (born April 14, 1966) serves as the current Under Secretary of the United States Navy.^[1] She is the author of Lifting the Fog of Peace: How Americans Learned to Fight Modern War, a study of organizational learning and institutional change within the U.S. military.^[2]

Biography

Davidson attended the University of Colorado at Boulder and earned a B.S. in Architectural Engineering. She later earned a master's degree and PhD in international studies from the University of South Carolina.

Davidson grew up in a Navy family in California and Virginia and was commissioned as an Air Force second lieutenant in 1988. She flew combat support, airdrop, and humanitarian air mobility missions in the Pacific, Europe and the Middle East in both the Lockheed C-130 Hercules and the Boeing C-17 Globemaster cargo aircraft, and also served as an instructor pilot at the United States Air Force Academy. She was a Distinguished Graduate of Air Force Squadron Officers’ School and was the first woman to fly the Air Force’s tactical C-130.^[3]

Following the conclusion of her Air Force career in 1998, Davidson pursued doctoral studies in international affairs at the University of South Carolina. From 2006 to 2008, she served as Director of Stability Operations Capabilities within the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict). Davidson was founding director of the Consortium for Complex Operations, later renamed the Center for Complex Operations (CCO), a research center within the National Defense University that studies military and civilian coordination in stability operations.^[4]

From 2009 to 2012, Davidson served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Plans, where she oversaw the formulation and review of military war plans and global force posture policy.^[5] She was recognized with the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service.

Following her service in the Pentagon, Davidson became an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Public Policy at George Mason University, where she taught courses on national security policy and civil-military relations.

On January 17, 2014, Davidson accepted the position of Senior Fellow for Defense Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.^[6] During this time, Davidson also served as a presidentially appointed member of the National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force,^[7] which recommended changes to service structure and management policies, as well as a member of the Reserve Forces Policy Board.^[8]

On September 18, 2015, it was announced that Davidson had been nominated by President Barack Obama to become Under Secretary of the United States Navy.^[9] She was confirmed by the United States Congress and assumed her post on March 17, 2016.^[10]

References

1. "U.S. Navy Biographies - THE HONORABLE JANINE DAVIDSON". Retrieved 3 May 2016.
2. "Lifting the Fog of Peace". The University of Michigan Press. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
3. "DoN Swears in Janine Davidson, First Permanent Under Secretary Since 2013". USNI News. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
4. http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/cco-update-new-home-for-the-consortium-for-complex-operations
5. http://www.nps.edu/Academics/AcademicGroups/GPPAG/Docs/PDF/Bios/Janine_davison_bio.pdf
6. "Janine Davidson Joins CFR as Senior Fellow for Defense Policy". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
7. "Google". Retrieved 3 May 2016.
8. "Dr. Janine A. Davidson". Retrieved 3 May 2016.
9. "President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts". whitehouse.gov. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
10. "PN873 - Nomination of Janine Anne Davidson for Department of Defense, 114th Congress (2015-2016)". Retrieved 3 May 2016.