By DENNIS NISHI
Growing up with military family members who regularly chatted about jets inspired Celeste Ward Gventer to study aeronautical engineering at Stanford University. But she ended up becoming a defense analyst, serving two stints in Iraq—one helping to build the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. She eventually became a deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Dept. of Defence before becoming a senior defense analyst at Rand Corp. in February. She’s now studying the effects of repeated deployments on soldiers. Writer Dennis Nishi spoke with Ms. Ward Gventer about her career. Edited excerpts follow.
Full name: Celeste Ward Gventer
Age: 38
Hometown: Albuquerque, N.M.
Current position: Senior defense analyst, Rand Corp.
Education: Bachelor’s in Political Science, Stanford University; Master’s of Public Policy, Harvard University Kennedy School of Government
Years in the industry: 13
How I got to here in 10 words or less: I knew what I wanted and worked towards those goals.
Q. Why did you change major to political science?
A. I took a course called technology and national security—because all the coolest airplanes were on the military side. I got hooked. It was interesting to think about the broader implications of technology and what it meant to global politics and to national security.
Q. How did you get your foot in the door in Washington?
A. After graduating, I took a job with a small consulting firm called DFI International in 1999. I ended up doing consulting for the Defense Department. Not long afterward, a friend who was the strategic-forces analyst at the Congressional Budget Office said he was going to move on. He told me I should take his job. I was this newly minted public-policy master. I thought he was crazy. [But] I got the job.
Q. What did you do there?
A. I provided nonpartisan analysis for the Congress on programs that dealt with United States nuclear forces and some non-proliferation issues. I [did] a cost estimate of the Bush administration missile-defense program in 2001. The deadline was very tight and there was going to be a big press conference on Sept. 10, 2001. We were trying to get everything right. Then the press conference got delayed. The next day nobody was interested in missile defense anymore.
Q. Do defense analysts typically have military backgrounds?
A. There are a number of analysts who are former officers. Many come from the academic world and have Ph.D.s. I fall under the category of policy wonks interested in the professional analysis and conduct of policy making.
Q. How did you end up in Iraq?
A. It’s not something that ever occurred to me until a friend called me in 2003. A friend said he was going to Iraq, and they needed to find people to build a ministry of defense. I realized it was a tremendous opportunity and a chance to be part of something important by taking what I’ve done and making it useful.
Q. Building an institution from scratch sounds daunting. Were you given any kind of guidance?
A. No. It was pretty open-ended. The original plan was much longer term. After the determination was later made that we would hand over power to the Iraqis by June of 2004, we were given six or seven months. We worked furiously so that we’d have something to hand over to them that would be functional. I did everything from recruit Iraqi employees to help design the organization and the training program with the national defense university.
How You Can Get There, Too
Best advice: “Connect with good mentors,” says Ms. Ward. “I’ve had the same mentors for years and they’ve repeatedly been helpful throughout my career.”
Skills you need: “It’s good to be pragmatic and have good analytical skills. I also try to avoid theology and dogma,” she says.
Where you should start: “A good Master’s in Public Policy program and internships can offer a good foundation,” Ms. Ward offers.
Professional organizations to contact: Council on Foreign Relations (cfr.org).
Salary range: According to USAJOBS.com, the U.S. Federal Government job site, a defense analyst working in the Department of Defense or Congressional Budget Office can earn between $50,408 to $155,000.
Q. What led you to return?
A. I really wanted to go back because I thought 2006 would be a big year. I wanted to help. I interviewed with General [Peter] Chiarelli [commander of the multinational corps in Iraq]. He hired me as an aide… at the operational level.
I’d give him an analysis of what I thought was going on. Sometimes, I’d offer an alternative analysis. I did one piece about breaking up the ministry of the interior.
Q. Where did you go from there?
A. After getting back, I did consulting work in India until early 2007, when I got a call from a friend asking if I was up for being a deputy assistant secretary of defense. I thought it was a joke. [But] my name was in the mix for a position that had been created out of a reorganization. It was for “stability operations capability.” They provide policy input and advice on the capabilities necessary for stability operations and other irregular warfare. I tried to take what we learned in Iraq and translate that into what the military should look like in the future.
Q. Why did you leave that to go into the private sector?
A. Usually when the administration leaves, so do the politicos. I had been around the think-tank world and wanted to do some serious analysis. I had a lot of respect for Rand, so I applied and got a job there earlier this year.
Q. What are you working on now?
A. I’m leading a study on rapid-deployment tempo on soldiers to try to better understand what happens to soldiers and their families, units and the army with repeated deployments with short time at home. I’d been around a lot of soldiers, and my husband is one. It’s about real people, and I’m happy to have the opportunity to work on topics I care about.
Write to Dennis Nishi at cjeditor@dowjones.com


















