Paula Thornhill is Acting Director of the Strategic Studies program at Johns Hopkins SAIS. Prior to joining JHU/SAIS she was the director of the Strategy and Doctrine Program within RAND Project AIR FORCE. Thornhill retired from the US Air Force as a brigadier general in 2009. Her last assignment was as the commandant of the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (2006-09). Just prior to her time as commandant, Thornhill served as the acting DASD, Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. She served previously, among other things, as the dean of Faculty and Academic Programs at the National War College and as special assistant to the 15th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She holds a BS from the US Air Force Academy, an MA from Stanford University, and a DPhil from Oxford University. Thornhill is the author of Demystifying the American Military (2019).
