Kathy Roth-Douquet

Kathryn Roth-Douquet is a writer, lawyer, political activist and Marine Corps wife. She writes on issues of the military in society. Her forthcoming book, AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes from the Military and How it Hurts Our Country, co-authored by Frank Schaeffer, is published by Collins Books/Harper Collins and will be available in bookstores in May 2006. It discusses how the country, its decision-making and democracy are hurt by the growing disconnect between those who dominate our political, cultural and professional institutions and those in the military. Roth-Douquet is a veteran of every presidential campaign of the past twenty years and has served in the Clinton White House and the Department of Defense. As associate director of presidential advance for the Clinton administration, she traveled with or ahead of the president around the world, negotiating on behalf of the White House and producing presidential events, from G-8 summits to rallies of several hundred thousand to celebrate the end of the Cold War to town hall meetings in America. At the Pentagon, she served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense primarily on defense-reform issues. Her final title was acting Principal Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Industrial Affairs and Installations). For her work there she was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service. Roth-Douquet is a member of the Democratic Leadership Council, a Fellow with the Truman Project, and a strategist and fundraiser within the Democratic Party. Outside of politics and government, she has been involved with private foundations, as vice president of the Revlon Foundation and as director of special projects for the Nathan Cummings Foundation. She was a weekly commentator on a current-affairs television show in Japan and has taught American Government for the University of Maryland's University College in Japan. She is as an attorney and currently serves on the panel for the California Court of Appeals. A graduate of Bryn Mawr College, Roth-Douquet holds a masters in public and international affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University, where she was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and editor in chief of the journal of public and international affairs. She holds a law degree, magna cum laude and Order of the Coif, from the University of San Diego.