CFR Welcomes Visiting Fellows

September 11, 2018—The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) welcomes the 2018–19 visiting fellows to the David Rockefeller Studies Program. Selected fellows have the opportunity to broaden their perspective of foreign affairs through a year in residence at the Council.

Visiting fellowships are an integral part of the Council’s efforts to develop talent by creating more scholar-practitioners in the field of foreign policy. The International Affairs Fellowship (IAF), established in 1967, counts more than 600 alumni. Over the years, the Council has hosted more than 150 Military Fellows, more than seventy Edward R. Murrow Press Fellows, and close to twenty National Intelligence Fellows. Among CFR’s Military Fellowship alumni, who come to the Council at the captain or colonel rank, more than half have gone on to be promoted to admiral or general.

EDWARD R. MURROW PRESS FELLOW
Anne Barnard has led coverage of the Syria war for the New York Times for the past six years, reporting from across the Middle East as Beirut bureau chief. Barnard has worked from the Middle East intermittently since 2003, beginning as bureau chief for the Boston Globe in Baghdad. Barnard’s work has won several journalism prizes, including the Columbia Journalism School’s Meyer Berger Award, for a series on the impact of the 2010 earthquake on New York’s Haitian diaspora.

MILITARY FELLOW
Captain Kevin M. Brand, of the U.S. Navy, has sailed and commanded ships throughout Asia and the Middle East for twenty-six years. For the past several years, he has worked in national security decision-making and policy development for Asia, with both the Barack Obama and Donald J. Trump administrations.

NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE FELLOW
Michael P. Dempsey is the former acting director of national intelligence. Prior to that, he was the deputy director of national intelligence and President Barack Obama’s primary intelligence briefer. Dempsey began his intelligence career with the CIA in 1990, serving in a number of management and analytical positions, including as the director of the Office of Transnational Issues; director of the Office of African, Latin America, and Global Issues; and deputy associate director for military affairs. Dempsey returns as a visiting fellow at CFR for a second year.

MILITARY FELLOW
Colonel John M. Klein Jr., of the U.S. Air Force, commanded the 60th Air Mobility Wing at Travis Air Force Base in California and the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing in Southwest Asia, among other leadership and command positions. He has served multiple tours on the Joint Staff and the Air Staff at the Department of Defense.

MILITARY FELLOW
Colonel Erica C. Nelson, of the U.S. Army, has commanded at the brigade, battalion, and company levels. Her previous staff assignments include positions at U.S. Northern Command, U.S. Army Pentagon, and the 42nd Military Police Brigade. Her overseas assignments include Germany and deployments to Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iraq, and Kuwait, in support of combat and contingency operations.

MILITARY FELLOW 
Colonel Matthew S. Reid, of the U.S. Marine Corps, has commanded and deployed in the infantry from the platoon to regimental level and as the deputy commander for Task Force Southwest in Afghanistan. He served at the counter-IED operations integration center within the Joint IED Defeat Organization and has staff duty on a regimental combat team and in the G-3 of 1st Marine Division.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS FELLOW
William G. Rich most recently served as U.S. Treasury attaché to the United Arab Emirates and Oman. He previously worked in a variety of counterterrorism and intelligence roles both domestically and overseas, including as a special operations planner in Afghanistan and executive assistant to the acting director of national intelligence. Rich will be in residence at CFR.

MILITARY FELLOW
Captain Steven Wittrock, of the U.S. Coast Guard, has commanded four Coast Guard cutters including the USCGC Katherine Walker, CGC Aspen, CGC Reliance, and most recently the CGC Sherman. Wittrock also served in the headquarters budget, programs, and strategy offices as well as taught civil engineering at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

Learn more about CFR’s fellowship program at https://www.cfr.org/fellowships. To request an interview with a CFR expert, please contact the Global Communications and Media Relations team at 212.434.9888 or [email protected].