21 Facts About Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall

Elizabeth D Sherwood-Randall is an American national security and energy leader, public servant, educator, and author who served as the 11th United States Homeland Security Advisor in the Biden administration from 2021 to 2025.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall previously served in both the Clinton and Obama administrations and held appointments at academic institutions and think tanks.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs during President Obama's first term.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall was part of the Biden administration team that launched the US National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism on May 25,2023.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall's mother's parents began their family life in Omaha, Nebraska, where her mother Dorothy Lipsey Romonek was born in 1932.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall was born in Los Angeles, California and has one brother, Ben Sherwood.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall received a bachelor's degree from Harvard University, and a doctorate in international relations from Balliol College, Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall was part of the Pentagon leadership team that established the National Guard State Partnership Program, an enduring military-military collaboration between American National Guard forces and partner forces around the world, including most of the countries that emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall was a Senior Research Scholar at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation from 2000 to 2008.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall focused on revitalizing America's unique network of alliance relationships and strengthening cooperation with 49 countries and three international institutions in Europe to advance US global interests.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall was nominated by President Obama to be Deputy Secretary of Energy and confirmed by the United States Senate on September 18,2014.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall worked with minority-serving colleges and institutions to convey opportunities for their students within the Department and offered professional and career-based training for those students.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall frequently encouraged and mentored young people to consider pathways to public service.

Early in the Biden Administration, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall noted that these events would require an effort to strengthen and harden critical infrastructure to create better resiliency for the future.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall advocated for building an integrated regional system to manage unprecedented human migration in the Western Hemisphere, with the objective of reducing dangerous irregular migration and incentivizing legal migration.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall contributed to the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking, countering efforts by human smugglers and human traffickers who take advantage of vulnerable populations.

When it became apparent that the Government of Afghanistan would fall in 2021, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall was among the senior White House officials deliberating about how to manage a noncombatant evacuation operation from Kabul.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall led efforts to stem the proliferation of new technologies that could negatively impact homeland security, including through the development of an ambitious counter-unmanned aircraft systems strategy.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall delivered the Keynote Address for the 2024 Eradicate Hate Global Summit, the most comprehensive anti-hate conference in the world.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall led the interagency process that produced the 2023 National Security Memorandum 19, Counter Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism and Advance Nuclear and Radioactive Material Security.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall has written on a variety of national security issues, including on USalliances and preventing nuclear proliferation.