Full Biography

• Progressive foreign policy, international security, political speechwriting• Former Clinton speechwriter• Author, US in the World: Talking Global Issues with Americans, Heather Hurlburt is the Executive Director of the National Security Network, an organization whose priorities include working with political leaders, experts and advocates to create a safer, saner foreign policy. The 2008 presidential election cycle provided the impetus for NSN's progressive national security rapid response structure to augment efforts of candidates and campaigns.

Hurlburt brings nearly two decades of experience developing, shaping and communicating US foreign policy. For five years she ran her own communications and strategy practice, with a broad client list including individual political, entertainment and educational leaders as well as groups such as DATA (Debt AIDS Trade Africa), the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Stanley Foundation, and many others. She is a Senior Adviser to the US in the World Project of the New America Foundation.

Previously, Hurlburt served in the Clinton Administration, both in the State Department and as a Special Assistant and Speechwriter to President Clinton. She was the Washington Deputy Director of the International Crisis Group (ICG) and served as a Program Director at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She spent four years as a member of the US delegation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Hurlburt is co-author of US in the World: Talking Global Issues with Americans, published by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Aspen Institute in 2004 to help foreign policy experts and advocates communicate effectively with American citizens. She has published opinion pieces widely in print and online, comments frequently on presidential speech-making and other topics; and blogs regularly at www.democracyarsenal.org.

She is a graduate of Brown University and the George Washington University and lives in DC with her husband and son.