Meredith Berger is a senior fellow at the Brennan Center, focusing on election critical infrastructure security. Berger was part of the Defending Digital Democracy Program at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, which led efforts after the 2016 elections to assist election officials in preparing for and responding to hybrid threats to the election process. She continued with the project as a nonresident fellow at the Belfer Center and joined Microsoft’s Defending Democracy Program. In this role, Berger worked to protect and reinforce democratic processes, systems, and stakeholders and advance cyber diplomacy and norms of responsible behavior. She focused this work across key lines of effort: infrastructure integrity, physical and cyber security, and influence operations defense.
Most recently, Berger served as the Senate-confirmed U.S. assistant secretary of the Navy for energy, installations, and environment, where she worked on critical infrastructure, providing oversight and policy for Navy and Marine Corps energy and water; infrastructure hardening and resilience; military construction; acquisition, utilization, and disposal of real property and facilities; environmental protection; safety and occupational health; and tribal and indigenous affairs. For the majority of the first year of her tenure, Berger concurrently performed the duties of the undersecretary of the Navy and was responsible for oversight and policy for defense and naval strategy, intelligence and intelligence-related activities, sensitive activities, special access programs, space activities, small business programs, the naval audit service, business operations, performance management, and risk management within the department. Previously, Berger served in senior roles in the Department of Defense, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Florida’s state government.
Berger is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, Shepard Broad College of Law at Nova Southeastern University, and Harvard Kennedy School. Berger is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and she has been recognized for her work with the Navy Distinguished Public Service Medal, the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, the Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service, the Environmental Protection Agency Gold Medal for Exceptional Service, and the Guam Maga’håga Award and Governor’s Medal. She is the proud sponsor of the U.S.S. Fort Lauderdale, an amphibious ship in the U.S. Navy fleet.
