Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service welcomes Michael Sulmeyer to the school’s faculty as a Professor of the Practice and director of cyber programs within the Security Studies Program (SSP), the school’s largest graduate program. Sulmeyer most recently served as the Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy and the Principal Cyber Advisor to the Secretary of Defense. He was first to hold this role in the Department of Defense and was the senior official responsible for setting DoD-wide policy on cyber operations, cyber policy and cybersecurity. Sulmeyer also previously held senior-level positions with the U.S. Army, U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Council. He will join the SFS faculty in August 2025.
“Michael Sulmeyer is the country’s leading expert on cyber policy,” said SFS professor Daniel Byman, director of the Security Studies Program. “His appointment sends a clear message to present students and future applicants considering SFS: we are cultivating the next-generation of talent at a time when the connections between national security and cyber policy could not be clearer or more urgent. We are delighted to have him join our program.”
At SFS, Sulmeyer will lead SSP efforts on cyber issues, both in the classroom and for co-curricular activities. He will teach classes on cybersecurity, national security decision making and the interaction between emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and cyber operations.
Previously in academia, he was the director of the Cybersecurity Project at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He also was a senior fellow with Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET).
“I am excited to return to Georgetown to join the Security Studies Program and the School of Foreign Service. I am very much looking forward to this opportunity to work with world-class faculty while building the bench for the next generation of national security professionals,” Sulmeyer said.
Sulmeyer earned his doctorate from Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar. He also earned a law degree from Stanford Law School, a master’s degree in War Studies from King’s College London and a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University.
