UNC Alumni in National Security

Join the Russian Flagship Program for a panel with Kate Hewitt and Bill Beaver, two UNC Alumni currently working for the Department of Defense.

Register here.

Kate Hewitt is on detail from the National Nuclear Security Administration serving as the Multilateral Arms Control and Nonproliferation Advisor at the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. She leads DoD’s multilateral arms control and nonproliferation efforts with international and interagency partners, specifically on nuclear weapons treaties, including at the UN. Her portfolio also includes space, cyber, bio, chem, and certain conventional weapons. At NNSA, she served as an Action Officer with the Office of Safety, Infrastructure, and Operations before transitioning to Public Affairs as a spokeswoman. Previously, Kate was a research assistant and Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellow at the Brookings Institution and served in Peace Corps Moldova. She holds an M.A. in Global Studies from UNC Chapel Hill where she was a Farsi FLAS Fellow. Kate is a Board Advisor for Girl Security, and has published extensively on various national security issues.

Bill Beaver is a Biodefense Policy Advisor with the Department of Defense. He co-leads the development of the Department’s first ever biodefense strategy, the Biodefense Posture Review. He is also the lead staffer at the DoD for the Biological Weapons Convention, which will hold a review conference in December to discuss reforming and improving the convention. Mr. Beaver has previously served in various roles, both in non-governmental organizations such as the U.S.-Russia Business Council and the think tank the Council on Strategic Risks, and in support of the DoD, including as a Russian linguist with U.S. Special Operations Forces in Syria. He earned his M.A. in Russian and East European Studies Program at UNC Chapel Hill.