Amy Zegart


Amy Zegart is an American academic. She serves as the co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University; a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution; and professor of political economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Early life

Zegart was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1967. She received an A.B. in East Asian Studies magna cum laude from Harvard University. She then earned a Ph.D in Political Science at Stanford University, where she studied under Condoleezza Rice. While in graduate school, she spent time on President Bill Clinton's National Security Council staff.

Career

Shortly after graduating from Harvard, Zegart moved to Hong Kong, where she continued studying East Asia for a year on a Fulbright Scholarship. Following this, she began work as an associate with McKinsey & Company, where she advised Fortune 100 companies on strategy and organizational effectiveness. Zegart then attended graduate school. After completing her Ph.D., she served as professor of public policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and as a fellow at the Burkle Center for International Relations. In 2011, Zegart moved to Stanford University.
Zegart is a leading national expert on the United States Intelligence Community and national security policy. She has written three books on the topic: Flawed By Design, which chronicled the evolution of the relationship between the United States Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council; Spying Blind, which examined U.S. intelligence agencies in the period preceding the September 11 attacks in 2001; and Eyes on Spies, which examined the weaknesses of U.S. intelligence oversight.
She currently resides in Palo Alto, California, and is married to a retired screenwriter.

Publications