Heather Williams

Heather Williams is a senior international/defense policy researcher at the RAND Corporation and the associate director of the International Security and Defense Policy Program within the National Security Research Division. Her research focuses on national security, Middle East regional issues, terrorism and extremist violence, and intelligence policy and methodology. Williams joined RAND from the National Intelligence Council, where she served as the Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Iran and the Acting National Intelligence Officer for Iran. She has worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Special Operations Intelligence Center, and the Transportation Security Administration. She was as a founding member of the Foreign Fighter Task Force and served three overseas tours supporting Special Operations Forces counterterrorism operations. Williams holds an M.S. in strategic intelligence from the National Intelligence University and a B.S. in U.S. foreign policy and national security from Boston University, and she was a Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholar.