Kenneth A. Myers, III

Mr. Myers is the Director for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the U.S. Strategic Command Center for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction (SCC-WMD). He was sworn in on July 27, 2009. DTRA safeguards America and its allies from Weapons of Mass Destruction (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high explosives) by providing capabilities to reduce, eliminate, and counter the threat and mitigate its effects. The SCC-WMD’s integrates and synchronize Department of Defense-wide efforts in support of the combating WMD mission. Both are co-located on Fort Belvoir, Va.

Mr. Myers joined the United States Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations as a Senior Professional Staff Member in 2003. Before coming to DTRA, he served as the senior advisor to Sen. Richard G. Lugar, the Committee’s ranking member, on European, former Soviet and Central Asian Affairs, and the Caucasus as well as nonproliferation, counter-proliferation, arms control, and arms sales. In that capacity, he assisted Sen. Lugar on the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program; issues involving promotion of U.S. trade and exports; terrorism, crime and the flow of illegal drugs; oversight of U.S. foreign assistance programs; the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; the European Union; the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe; and former Soviet military, economic, and energy affairs.

Mr. Myers played a leading role in numerous critical foreign policy debates as Sen. Lugar’s point person on NATO enlargement; the Moscow and Strategic Arms Reduction treaties; U.S. nonproliferation and counter-proliferation policies; export controls; the U.S.-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act; and the Lugar-Obama Cooperative Proliferation Detection, Interdiction Assistance, and Conventional Threat Reduction Act. In addition he was a regular advisor on U.S. policy towards the Middle East, South Asia, and North Korea and was responsible for reviewing and vetting nominees for ambassadorial posts in Europe and the former Soviet Union.

From 1995 until 2002, Mr. Myers served as a Legislative Assistant for National Security and Foreign Affairs for Sen. Lugar. He assisted the senator in his role as a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Senate’s National Security Working Group and Russia Working Group. His responsibilities included international politico-military matters, national security issues, international treaties, nonproliferation, arms control, missile defense, and European and former Soviet security issues.
Prior to joining Sen. Lugar’s staff, he was a senior associate at the firm of Robinson Lake Sawyer Miller in Washington, DC. He specialized in U.S. public and private sector investments to states of the former Soviet Union and was responsible for establishing the firm’s office in Kiev, Ukraine.

Mr. Myers holds a master’s degree from the Catholic University of America and a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

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