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
