Heather Kearney is a nonresident fellow in the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. She is also a senior Indo-Pacific analyst in the Joint Exercise, Training, and Assessments Directorate at United States Strategic Command. As the senior analyst for risk of strategic deterrence failure, she leads a team dedicated to assessing trends in the environment in order to inform strategic risk assessments.

Kearney has focused on the Indo-Pacific region for over twelve years. She served in the US Air Force and Navy and retired as a naval intelligence officer after twenty-two years of service. She is a published author. Her article titled “Identifying Leader’s Intent: An Analysis of Kim Jong-Un” was published in 2021 by the Journal of Defense and Security Analysis.

She earned her Master of Science degree in international relations with a concentration in national security affairs from Troy University and her Bachelor of Science degree in public administration from Upper Iowa University.