Board of Directors

William J. Denn
Chairman of the Board

William J. Denn is a U.S. military officer currently based in Washington, DC. He previously served as the Senior Intelligence Trainer at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center and as the senior intelligence officer of the global readiness force brigade in the 82nd Airborne Division. Denn is a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and previously commanded a military intelligence unit at the National Security Agency. He holds a B.S. from the United States Military Academy, a M.P.P. from Harvard University, a M.M.A.S. in Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and a M.M.A.S. in Theater Operations from the U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies. He is a recipient of the General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award and was recognized as the distinguished honor graduate of the Command and General Staff College. He is also a term-member at the Council on Foreign Relations. He has written for the Washington Post, Boston Herald, Military Review, and other academic and military journals on national security, intelligence, and interagency cooperation issues.

Armen Melikian
Executive Director

Armen Melikian is an operations analyst at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory detailed to US European Command. Previously he served as an engineer in the Laboratory’s Air and Missile Defense mission area, where he supported tactics development, test and evaluation, and future concepts assessments for multiple United States Navy combat systems. He holds a Master of Science in Systems and Information Engineering from the University of Virginia, and a Bachelor of Science in Materials Science and Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

Raina Davis
Director of Research and Publication

Raina Davis serves as a Director for Research and Analysis for the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI), exploring how the Department of Defense and other government agencies can invest in, integrate, and scale AI for national security. Within this context, she primarily studies the role of industry in developing future defense capabilities. Raina has conducted primary research in Tunisia, Jordan, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, and worked for several years as a research coordinator at Columbia University’s Global Center in Amman, Jordan. She holds a BA from Stanford University and MPP from Harvard Kennedy School.

Kevin Ryan
Director of Finance

Kevin is a U.S. Army Intelligence Officer, who has held senior intelligence positions at the company, battalion, brigade, and division levels. Kevin has served in both conventional and special operations units — deploying multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan. Most recently he served as a Defense Congressional Fellow in the US Senate, and as the Intelligence Portfolio manager for the Army’s Office of the Chief Legislative Liaison.

Research interests include: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Cyber Defense, and Intelligence Analysis.

Josh Stiefel
Director of Partnership and Outreach

Josh Stiefel serves as a Professional Staff Member for the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) staff. Previously, he served as Senior Cyber Policy Advisor at the Department of the Treasury, sitting at the nexus of national security, cyber policy, and economic security and working closely with Executive Branch agencies, independent regulators, and financial institutions. Josh began his career as a political-military analyst at the Department of Defense and held multiple positions at the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy, and the Joint Staff for which he received the Joint Civilian Service Achievement Award. Concurrent to his work with the HASC, Josh is an officer with the U.S. Navy Reserve, a board member with the Harvard Veterans Alumni Organization’s DC Chapter, and a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at Lehigh University’s College of Arts and Sciences. He is a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations, and holds a Masters of Public Policy from Harvard University and a Bachelors of Arts with Honors from Lehigh University.

Olivia Zetter
Board Member

Olivia Zetter is a Director for Research and Analysis at the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. She previously served at the Department of State as a Policy Advisor in the Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues and as the Special Advisor on Trans-Regional Issues to the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS. She has also served as a Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Department of Defense. Prior to her time in government, Ms. Zetter worked in Washington and on-site abroad to manage stabilization and conflict management programs in the Middle East and South Asia with a U.S. government implementing partner. Ms. Zetter received her Masters of Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and her Bachelors of Arts in International Relations from American University.