Avril Haines, the country’s first female director of national intelligence (DNI), was the first of Biden’s cabinet members to be confirmed in the Senate (Borger).
Haines’s credentials for the office are lengthy. She served as a legal counsel in the Senate, State Department, and White House under the Bush and Obama administrations. Additionally, she was both the first woman to serve as the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the deputy national security advisor (Borger). Her personal history, however, would not suggest her rise as a top American intelligence officer.
Haines was born in Manhattan as the daughter of a painter and biochemist. Her mother suffered from lung disease and died when Haines was a teen. Under the pressure of medical bills, her family lost their apartment and were forced to stay with various friends and family until she finished high school. Unlike many other cabinet members, Haines is not an ivy–to–DC pipeline prodigy. Instead, after she graduated high school, she spent a gap year in Tokyo learning Judo (Borger).
Upon her return, Haines studied physics at the University of Chicago and worked as a mechanic to pay for her education. While a student, she rebuilt a Cessna plane and planned to fly it to Europe. Not long after takeoff, both engines shut down and she was forced to make an emergency landing (Borger). Later marrying her flight instructor, the two bought an erotica book café in Baltimore.
While her early life can be characterized as eclectic and chaotic, to say the least, in 1998 Haines applied to law school and attended Georgetown Law where she specialized in international law and human rights. Under the Obama Administration, Haines helped codify criteria for drone strikes and managed the CIA’s recoil from the torture fiasco under the years of the Bush administration (Borger). While the drone strike laws faced some controversy, her work helped to provide transparency as well as bolster legal guidance pertaining to drone action (Monroe). Like many top officials, Haines resigned during the Trump years, but was appointed by President Biden as the nomination for DNI.
Following Biden’s inauguration, Haines was confirmed with a senate vote of 84-10 (Raju et al.). As the DNI, Haines is now tasked with heading 17 agencies – a community that was overlooked and neglected by the previous administration. While the former president not only politicized the role of DNI, he also insulted the intelligence community, disregarded their input and fact finding, and encouraged countless career officials to resign their posts.
Her goal, she said, is to rebuild trust between agencies and the White House (Gazis). In her confirmation hearing, Haines agreed to assess the threat of the QAnon conspiracy as well as address international terror threats (Gazis). During her time in the Senate foreign relations committee, she worked with the then committee chair and senator, Joe Biden. Her history with the president makes her a powerful force in the administration and an essential advocate for the intelligence community.
During her confirmation hearing, Haines emphasized trust, confidence, and an out-of-politics approach to national security. “To be effective, the DNI must never shy away from speaking truth to power, especially, when doing so may be inconvenient or difficult” (Gazis).
Borger, Julian. “Avril Haines’s Unusual Backstory Makes Her an Unlikely Chief of US Intelligence.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 26 Jan. 2021, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/26/avril-haines-director-of-national-intelligence.
Gazis, Olivia. “Director of National Intelligence Nominee Avril Haines Vows to Keep Politics out of Intelligence.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 19 Jan. 2021, www.cbsnews.com/news/avril-haines-director-of-national-intelligence-confirmation-hearing/.
Monroe, Brendan. “Who Is Avril Haines?” The Millennial Source, The Millennial Source, 31 Dec. 2020, themilsource.com/2020/12/31/who-is-avril–haines/.
Raju, Manu, et al. “Senate Confirms First Biden Cabinet Nominee.” CNN, Cable News Network, 21 Jan. 2021, edition.cnn.com/2021/01/20/politics/avril–haines-confirmation-vote/index.html.
I feel like Georgetown Law has a special ability to lead many of its attendees into positions of great power and influence. Avril Haines is a great story. It seems like her childhood followed a much more down to earth path compared to many of todays politicians. Im interested to see what work she does regarding QAnon.
Wow, her life sounds like quite the adventure! Yet another inspiring female success story to motivate me.
Haines is literally everything I want to be… learn judo in Japan, build a plane, own an erotic novel cafe AND be the director of national intelligence? She is B.A.! All of your blogs have made me realize just how different yet unique these women’s lives are. None of them have seemed to be the average legacy type you see in Washington, which is very refreshing.