Asha Castleberry-Hernandez is a distinguished national security and foreign policy expert. She previously served as a senior advisor to the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs and the Kuwait desk officer at U.S. Army Central. She worked on security cooperation with the Office of Military Cooperation and Kuwait’s Ministry of Defense. Additionally, Castleberry-Hernandez served as a senior key leadership engagement officer for the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Kuwait. During the administration of President Barack Obama, she served at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, working on peacekeeping operations in Africa.  

Previously, she taught U.S. foreign policy, international affairs, and U.S. national security as an instructor at Fordham University, the George Washington University, and Baruch College. She is a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations and a major in the U.S. Army Reserve. Castleberry-Hernandez was previously a Robert J. Meyers Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, an adjunct fellow at the American Security Project, a fellow at Foreign Policy Interrupted, and a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

She is a graduate of Hampton University and holds an MA in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She studied law and business in China through Syracuse University and international security at the University of Oxford.