Laura Cooper
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Laura K. Cooper served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia from 2017 to 2025. She spearheaded U.S. security assistance to Ukraine – delivering billions in support – and orchestrated the 50-nation Ukraine Defense Contact Group to unify partners and catalyze assistance. She championed novel unmanned systems and air defense programs, supporting Ukrainian battlefield successes. A career member of the Senior Executive Service, Cooper served as the top Pentagon strategist on Russia. She also strengthened U.S. defense relationships across the region, including the Caucasus, Central Asia, Moldova, and the Western Balkans.
Other assignments during her more than twenty five years of federal service include: faculty at the National War College, teaching rising national security leaders; Principal Director in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Global Security Affairs, leading teams to design homeland defense strategy, mission assurance policy, and continuity of operations plans; Director of the Strategy Office, guiding the Quadrennial Defense Review; and Acting Director for South Asia and Afghanistan Team Chief, managing security assistance in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.
Before joining the Department of Defense, Cooper was a policy planning officer at the State Department and a Junior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
She holds a Master of Science in Foreign Service degree from Georgetown University, a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy degree from the Industrial College of Armed Forces at National Defense University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University.
She is the recipient of the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal (Sammies) Federal Employee of the Year award, the Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive, and multiple awards of the Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Medal and the Office of the Secretary of Defense Exceptional Civilian Service medal.