Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr. is the 21st Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, and the principal military advisor to the President, Secretary of Defense, and National Security Council.

Prior to becoming Chairman on Oct. 1, 2023, Gen. Brown served as the 22nd Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force.

Gen. Brown earned his commission in 1984 as a distinguished graduate of the Air Force ROTC program at Texas Tech University.

Gen. Brown has served in a variety of positions at the squadron and wing levels, including an assignment to the U.S. Air Force Weapons School as an F-16 Fighting Falcon Instructor. His notable staff tours include Aide-de-Camp to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force and Director of the Secretary of the Air Force and Chief of Staff Executive Action Group. His joint assignments include three assignments to U.S. Central Command as Air Operations Officer, Current Operations Division; Deputy Director, Operations Directorate; and Deputy Commander.

Gen. Brown has commanded a fighter squadron, the U.S. Air Force Weapons School, two fighter wings, and twice served as a Combined/Joint Air Component Commander with command tours at U.S. Air Forces Central Command and Pacific Air Forces.

Gen. Brown is a command pilot with more than 3,000 flight hours primarily in the F-16, including 130 combat hours, and has flown 20 additional fixed and rotary-wing aircraft. Throughout his career, he deployed or directly supported Operation Southern Watch, Operation Northern Watch, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Odyssey Dawn, Operation Unified Protector, and Operation Inherent Resolve.

In addition to his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Texas Tech University, Gen. Brown has a master’s degree in aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Fighter Weapons School, a distinguished graduate from Air Command and Staff College, a graduate of the Air War College, and served as a National Defense Fellow at the Institute for Defense Analyses.

Lieutenant General Melvin “Jerry” Carter is the fourth Deputy Commandant for Information (DCI) since the position was established in 2017.

Lieutenant General Carter enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1985. He Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1992 and was awarded the Signals Intelligence/Electronic Warfare Military Occupational Specialty before becoming a Marine Air Ground Task Force Intelligence Officer.  

During his military career, Lieutenant General Carter served in a variety of staff positions to include the S-3A, 2d Radio Battalion, II Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Intelligence Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, J2 Operations, CENTCOM/PACOM Branch Head, Joint Special Operations Command, S2-A, 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operation Capable), G-2 Plans, I Marine Expeditionary Force, J3 Interagency Branch Head, Joint Special Operations Command, AC/S G2, II Marine Expeditionary Force, J2, Joint Special Operations Command.  

Additional assignments include duty as the Executive Officer for the Director, the Defense Intelligence Agency as well as the Executive Assistant for the Associate Director for Military Affairs, at the Central Intelligence Agency. He recently served as the NSA Cybersecurity Directorate’s Deputy Director for Combat Support, responsible for preventing and eliminating threats to U.S. national security systems and critical infrastructure.

Lieutenant General Carter’s principal command tours include the Commanding Officer, 2d Radio Battalion and the Commanding Officer, Marine Corps Intelligence Activity.  Other career highlights include service as the Intelligence Officer/Platoon Commander for Marine Corps Special Operation Command, Detachment One, J2, Naval Special Warfare Task Group, Arabian Peninsula, J2, Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command, Arabian Peninsula and the Coalition J2, Special Operation Joint Task Force Afghanistan.  

From 2010 to 2011, Lieutenant General Carter served as the Commandant of the Marine Corps’ National Security Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and the Timothy T. Day Fellow at the Harvard Business School in 2016.

Gen. Anthony J. Cotton is the Commander, United States Strategic Command, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. He is responsible for one of 11 Unified Commands under the Department of Defense. USSTRATCOM is responsible for strategic deterrence, nuclear operations, global strike, missile defense, joint electromagnetic spectrum operations, analysis and targeting, and missile threat assessment. USSTRATCOM is comprised of 41,000 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Guardians, and civilians who operate globally performing the command’s missions. The command also provides the Secretary of Defense and President a range of options to deter adversaries and assure allies.   

Gen. Cotton entered the Air Force through the ROTC program in 1986 where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from North Carolina State University in Raleigh. He has commanded at the squadron, group, wing, and major command levels. He has served as the Vice Commander and Commander of the 341st Missile Wing, Commander of the 45th Space Wing, Director of the Eastern Range, Patrick AFB, Florida, Deputy Director of the National Reconnaissance Office, Commander 20th Air Force, Commander and President of Air University, as well as, Deputy Commander Air Force Global Strike Command.  

Prior to his current assignment, Gen. Cotton served as the Commander, Air Force Global Strike Command and Commander, Air Forces Strategic – Air, USSTRATCOM, Barksdale AFB, Louisiana.

For 30 plus years, Ms. Smetzer has been a trailblazer in enabling the evolution of national security missions. She has led numerous noteworthy initiatives that have served as hallmarks of intelligence agencies’ programs. During her tenure at the CIA while serving as the Director of Digital Futures in the Directorate of
Digital Innovation, she stood up an intelligence outpost for critical partnerships with the private sector to incubate experiments and prototypes to mission hard
problems. As a result, the CIA was able to apply technologies to problem sets in a novel and expeditious manner. She also served as Salesforce’s Vice President, National Security Programs as a business development executive.

In 2016, Ms. Smetzer returned to CIA to direct Digital Futures after spending 14 years in the private sector as a CEO, business strategist, and investor. In this capacity, she leveraged her expertise from both the public and private sectors to accelerate the identification and adoption of industry leading digital technologies with the goal of modernizing, advancing, and transforming mission. Among the efforts that she supported was one that transformed the analytic community – creating programs that help analysts do their jobs more effectively, cultivating collaboration among analysts by creating mechanisms where they can share in a raw, open, and safe environment. She was awarded both CIA’s Distinguished Intelligence Medal and Distinguished
Career Intelligence Medal for her CIA service.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Smetzer served 17 years at CIA as a technical analyst and senior manager, participating in and leading multiple transformation-related task forces and programs aimed at modernizing the business of intelligence, including the development of the first Directorate of Intelligence strategic plan. She conceptualized and led an innovative initiative aimed at aligning fragmented intelligence production processes into a secure, web-based,
collaborative, real-time production environment.

In 2004, Ms. Smetzer served on the White House Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction. Ms. Smetzer established her own strategic management consulting company, Jasmah Consulting. After her company was acquired in 2008, Ms. Smetzer held senior executive positions in business development and operations in large and small businesses, served on multiple Boards of Directors, and invested in and mentored multiple emergent technology companies.

John B. Sherman ’92 became Dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service on 1 August, 2024. Prior to this he spent 30 years in national security and intelligence positions in the CIA, Department of Defense, and other agencies where he worked and led activities ranging from overhead reconnaissance to all-source analysis to open-source intelligence. He most recently served in the Presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed position as Chief Information Officer of the Department of Defense, where he oversaw technology and cyber modernization for a 4-million person enterprise with a $60B IT and cyber budget. John is a 1992 Distinguish Military Graduate of Texas A&M University where he served as Corps Commander.