Staff

James Swartout serves as the executive director of the Center. Before coming to MITRE, James served as the chief of staff to the Secretary of the Air Force and was a member of the Senior Executive Service. In the Air Force, he also served as senior adviser to the Secretary of the Air Force and the Under Secretary of the Air Force. In 2015, James was the spokesperson and senior adviser to the Secretary of Defense during Ash Carter’s Senate confirmation and transition back to the Pentagon.

Prior to joining the Air Force Secretariat, James served as a senior adviser in the Public Affairs Office of the Secretary of Defense and as the spokesperson for Deputy Secretaries of Defense Ash Carter and Christine Fox. Before joining the Pentagon in 2009, James advised clients on issues of crisis communications and external relations at one of Washington, D.C.’s premier strategic communications firms. In addition to his experience in the Pentagon and the private sector, James has served as the associate director of the Truman National Security Project and as a congressional aide to U.S. Senator Max Baucus. He currently serves as a senior visiting fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

Greg Grant serves as the Center’s director and is the senior principal of integration and plans for MITRE’s National Security Sector. Prior to joining MITRE, Greg was senior director of strategy at Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx). During his nearly decade-long tenure with the Department of Defense, Greg also served as special assistant to Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work, helping him develop the “Third Offset Strategy.” His DoD experience includes serving as director of the Advanced Capabilities and Deterrence Panel, an effort to identify new technologies and concepts to advance U.S. military advantages against potential adversaries. He also served as a speechwriter to previous Secretaries of Defense Robert Gates, Leon Panetta, and Chuck Hagel.

A skilled analyst and former journalist, Greg was an embedded reporter with American troops during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and continued covering the war in Iraq—as well as the conflict in Afghanistan—for a number of years. Before taking an interest in journalism, he worked as a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He currently serves as an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

Mark Seip is the Center’s director for strategic development and manager for the MITRE National Security Sector’s Military Fellowship program. Prior to joining MITRE, he was on active duty in the Navy, serving on multiple senior level staffs as policy advisor and operational analyst including at the Office of Net Assessment, the Navy Staff, and the Joint Staff. Mark represented the Navy as a federal executive fellow at the Atlantic Council and spearheaded projects on Nordic-Baltic security and strategic communications. He began his military career as a naval aviator and was rated on the E-2C Hawkeye. He commanded an operational squadron and deployed several times from both coasts, accumulating over 3,000 flight hours and 300 carrier landings.

In addition to his work at MITRE, Mark consults on great power competition dynamics and U.S.–India relations for a variety of sponsors, including the Department of Defense's Office of Net Assessment and the U.S. Navy. He will also be teaching the intersection of AI and national security this fall at Georgetown University.

Adam J. Hebert is the strategic communications manager for the Center, an extension of his role as manager of strategic communications for MITRE’s National Security Sector overall. Prior to joining MITRE, Adam served as editor-in-chief of Air Force Magazine before also becoming vice president of Education and Publications at the Air Force Association. He also served as moderator and Washington coordinator for the Defense Writers Group, an association of defense and national security correspondents with 50 member news organizations worldwide. Adam previously served as a writer and editor for Inside Washington Publishers, which included publications such as InsideDefense.com, Inside the Air Force, and Defense Information & Electronics Report.

Katie Murray serves as the project manager for the Center as well as project manager for MITRE’s National Security Sector. Before coming to MITRE, Katie spent more than a decade serving the communication needs of industry and U.S. government clientele, including agencies such as the Small Business Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Katie also served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in the small West African nation of Benin from 2009-2011.

Shane Bilsborough is lead analyst for the Center. Prior to joining MITRE, Shane was a senior strategic analyst conducting research and analysis at OSD/Net Assessment from 2014-2019. His work at OSD included wargaming future conflict and identifying new analytic questions of interest to DoD leadership. He continues to advise senior DoD leaders on advanced military capabilities, warfighting trends, novel operational concepts and strategic developments likely to impact the United States position in its long-term competition with China. Shane also spent several years conducting research at various D.C. think tanks including CSIS and NDU on a variety of defense planning issues.