Neil Noronha

About Neil

(updated 6/2018) For his Luce  year, Neil Noronha worked with Carnegie India, the sixth international center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, under the direction of Carnegie India’s founding director Dr. C. Raja Mohan.  Opened in April 2016 in New Delhi, Carnegie India is staffed and led by local experts and places special emphasis on developing a cadre of young, up-and-coming Indian scholars.  Neil conducted research on different transnational security threats facing India, from natural disasters to money laundering.  A Carnegie publication authored by Neil, currently titled “The Case for Securitizing India’s Disaster Preparedness and Resilience,” is forthcoming later in 2018.  A rising national security professional, Neil worked for two years in the Obama Administration.  From December 2015 to January 2017, Neil was the Special Assistant to the Senior Director for Response Policy on the National Security Council (NSC) staff at the White House.  He oversaw the presidential approval process for declaring severe domestic incidents as major disasters or emergencies under the Robert T. Stafford Act. Additionally, he served as a duty officer within the Response Policy Directorate, working with the White House Situation Room to inform senior NSC staff and White House principals, including the President, about severe domestic incidents, their impact on local populations, and the U.S. government response. Before joining the NSC staff, Neil was at the Department of Defense as one of the youngest political appointees hired under the Obama Administration. Under the Defense Fellows Program, Neil served as the Special Assistant to Michael Lumpkin, the former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict, where he was Mr. Lumpkin’s principal speechwriter and handled special projects related to counterterrorism, humanitarian affairs, and counternarcotics. Additionally, Neil was an Action Officer within the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, where he managed issues related to defense cover and human intelligence activities. Neil has a B.S. in Foreign Service and an M.A. in Security Studies, both from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and interned at various Federal agencies and departments, a think tank, and a financial services company. He is passionate about tackling transnational issues, such as terrorism, organized crime, climate change, and natural disasters, through economic policy and instruments.  Neil is an avid basketball and football fan, consistently rooting for the Baltimore Ravens and Georgetown Hoyas.