Darnell M. Whitt ll

Board Member

Dr. Darnell Whitt is a specialist in American foreign policy and international security and has served in a variety of appointments in and out of government and academic institutions.  Most recently, he was a professor of defense policy at the Defense Resources Management Institute, a teaching and research center founded and supervised by the Secretary of Defense, and located at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

Before joining DRMI in 1988, Dr. Whitt served for 11 years as Intelligence Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, the Pentagon’s four-star-equivalent third-ranking civilian official who directs the Defense Department’s role in the national-security decision-making process.  For distinguished performance in this assignment, he was twice awarded the Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Medal by the Secretary of Defense, in 1981 and again in 1988.

In the 1960s and 1970s, he taught and published research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service; and he held appointments in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Department of State, and the US diplomatic mission to NATO in Paris and Brussels.  A graduate of Harvard College and a retired US Navy Captain with more than 32 years of commissioned service, Dr. Whitt is author of or contributor to many articles, books, studies, and reports, and a speaker or participant in events of over 120 professional groups.

He has served as an Officer and Board Member at a broad range of educational and philanthropic organizations nationally and in his community.  Selected as Speaker for his Class on its 50^th Reunion at Harvard College, Dr. Whitt is an Overseer of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.