Gender and Security: A Personal Perspective with Ms. Shawn Skelly, Former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel & Readiness
Shawn Skelly
Shawn Skelly, former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, was nominated by President Biden and confirmed by the Senate as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness in July 2021, making her only the second out transgender person to be confirmed and the highest ranking in the history of the executive branch.
She served in the Obama Administration as a Special Assistant in DoD and as the Executive Secretary of the Department of Transportation. In 2017 President Obama appointed Skelly to serve as a Commissioner on the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service, which considered methods to increase national participation in in all forms of service to address national security and other public service needs of the Nation.
Skelly served in the U.S. Navy for twenty years on active duty as a Naval Flight Officer. She helped co-found the advocacy organization Out in National Security and currently serves as a member of the board of directors of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve LGBTQ+ equality.
Shawn Skelly's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by The Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at CMC.