Christine Wormuth
Secretary of the Army
Christine Elizabeth Wormuth was born in April 1969 in San Diego, California. She earned an undergraduate degree in political science from Williams College in Massachusetts and received a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Maryland, College Park.
She entered government service as a Presidential Management Intern in President Clinton’s administration, spending the next six and a half years as a civil servant in the Defense Department. Later, she worked as a government consultant and then as a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
During President Obama’s administration, she served in the National Security Council as the Special Assistant to the President and the Defense Policy and Strategy Senior director. She became the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Homeland Defense. President Obama nominated her to serve as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. She was confirmed by the Senate in a voice vote. At the conclusion of her tenure, she was appointed the director of the RAND International Security and Defense Policy Center.
President Joe Biden nominated Wormuth to serve as the Secretary of the Army, the first woman to hold that position. She was unanimously confirmed by the Senate and assumed her position on May 28, 2021.
In the News…
U.S. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth has relieved four-star general General Charles Hamilton, head of the Army Materiel Command, of duty after the general sought to secure a promotion for a subordinate who had been deemed unfit. The Battalion Command Assessment Program was designed specifically to prevent outside influence in the selection of commanders.
An Army spokesperson said, “Based on the findings of a Department of the Army Inspector General investigation, the secretary of the Army has relieved General Charles Hamilton of command.”
The Inspector General report “found a preponderance of evidence to support a finding that General Hamilton and [the lieutenant colonel] shared a prohibited relationship that caused an actual or perceived partiality or unfairness.”
