Dr. Lance Hampton most recently served as the Senior Advisor for risk management in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. In this capacity he was the Department of Defense’s lead for the Defense Industrial Base Sector Risk Management and the implementation of National Security Memorandum 22. Dr. Hampton has worked to drive interagency cooperation and to enhance resilience and security for critical infrastructure essential to the Department of Defense, putting into practice the 2022 National Defense Strategy’s concept of integrated deterrence.
Dr. Hampton joined the Department of Defense in 2008 as a Presidential Management Fellow. During his fellowship, he worked in United Nations Peacekeeping Affairs, Defense Support to Civilian Authorities policy, and managed security cooperation funds for the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) to support operations in Afghanistan. Between 2010 and 2012, Dr. Hampton managed international agreements and TRANSCOM issues for the Global Defense Posture team. Between 2012 and 2016, Dr. Hampton directed DoD support to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the Domestic Counter-Terrorism and Global Anti-Terrorism team. Dr. Hampton served as the Executive Secretary for the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from 2016 to 2022, overseeing workflow, process, litigation, records management, privacy, and declassification-related issues. He was the Director for Strategy in late 2022 and early 2023, overseeing the public roll out of the unclassified version of the 2022 National Defense Strategy. Dr. Hampton has been awarded the Exceptional Civilian Service Medal and a Joint Civilian Service Achievement Medal and has attended the Federal Executive Institute’s Leadership for a Democratic Society.
Dr. Hampton has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh, teaching courses in U.S. Constitutional Law, civil rights, and international law. He also served as an adjunct professor at Iowa Wesleyan College, teaching world religions and ethics.
Dr. Hampton holds a Bachelor of Arts from Gustavus Adolphus College and a graduate degree in Classical Hebrew and Jewish Studies from the University of Oxford. He participated in biblical archaeological excavations in Israel and specialized in Persian Period Judean history. He holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Iowa College of Law and a Doctor of Philosophy from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Hampton’s research interests include the domestic politics of national security, including the intersection of political economy and national security.