Jessica Stern-Terrorism & Trauma Expert, Writer, Speaker

Jessica Stern.

Expert on Terrorism & Trauma  ·  Writer  ·  Speaker

  • Advises government agencies on terrorism and has an active top-secret security clearance

  • Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for work on trauma and violence

  • Selected as a Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Distinguished Scholar, 2024-2025

  • Served on President Clinton’s National Security Council Staff and was recognized by FBI Director Robert Mueller for her assistance to the U.S. government

  • Featured as one of seven “thinkers” in Time Magazine’s 100 innovators series

  • Author of numerous articles and five books, including Terror in the Name of God—selected by the New York Times as a notable book of the year—and Denial: A Memoir of Terror, named a best book of the year by the Washington Post

  • Served as Erik Erikson Fellow; World Economic Forum Fellow; International Affairs Fellow; and Superterrorism Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations

  • Member, Homeland Security Experts Group and Council on Foreign Relations

  • Awarded fellowships at Yaddo and MacDowell

  • Research Professor at Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Studies, and has taught counter-terrorism at Harvard, Boston University, and CIA University

  • Senior Fellow, Harvard’s School of Public Health and at Center for Naval Analyses

  • Worked as an analyst at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Served as inspiration for the character of Dr. Julia Kelly in the 1997 film The Peacemaker from her work at the National Security Council

  • Earned a doctorate from Harvard University in public policy; a master’s degree from MIT in technology policy; and a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College in chemistry; graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Psychoanalysis

“A woman with throw-weight.”

—The Washington Post

Engage Jessica.

If you’re interested in hiring Jessica Stern to speak or work with your organization, please contact her at jessicastern@me.com.

Books.

Praise.

Stern’s firsthand encounters bring a valuable and much-needed perspective to the problem of religious violence.

Publishers Weekly

Stern studies those who kill innocents for political gain. While others debate theories of terrorism from the safety of the ivory tower, Stern travels the world to meet those who actually commit the acts.

Time Magazine

“Jessica Stern is among the world’s experts on violence and evil.” 

— The New York Times

No scholar has done more than Jessica Stern to make the phenomenon of terrorism comprehensible.

—Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (2005-2009)

“Should be required reading for every politician and policymaker.”

— The Washington Post