Dr. Tara Maller

Dr. Tara Maller is a national security expert with extensive media and communications experience. She serves as Spokesperson and Senior Policy Advisor for the Counter Extremism Project (CEP).  CEP is a not-for-profit, non-partisan, international policy organization formed to combat the growing threat from extremist ideology. Led by a renowned group of former world leaders and former diplomats it will aim to combat extremism by pressuring financial support networks, countering the narrative of extremists and their online recruitment, and advocating for strong laws, policies and regulations.  Maller has appeared as a regular national security and foreign policy commentator on Bloomberg, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Fox Business, Al Jazeera America and HuffPost Live. She has published and presented on a wide range of issues including sanctions, diplomacy, intelligence, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, Iraq, Iran, cybersecurity, homeland security, national service and women in security.

She was previously the Director of Strategic Communications for the newly formed Service Year Alliance, a joint venture of the Aspen Institute and Be The Change. The Franklin Project at the Aspen Institute, where Maller served as Associate Director of Strategic Communications, is now part of this new venture. She is also a research fellow in the International Security Program at New America. Maller previously served as a military analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, where she focused on the Iraq insurgency. She has also worked in the private sector at a NY-based media startup, BrightWire Inc., where she served as Managing Director of Operations and Managing Editor. The company provided curated & custom international economic and political content to corporate clients. She has also done work in the private sector as a security consultant focused on cybersecurity & terrorism threat assessments.

Maller received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a concentration in International Relations and Security Studies.  She was also predoctoral research fellow at the Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. She received her M.A. in International Relations from the University of Chicago and she graduated with a B.A. in Government from Dartmouth College.