Avril Haines facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Avril Haines
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Official portrait, 2021
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| 7th Director of National Intelligence | |
| In office January 21, 2021 – January 20, 2025 |
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| President | Joe Biden |
| Deputy | Neil Wiley Stacey Dixon |
| Preceded by | John Ratcliffe |
| Succeeded by | Tulsi Gabbard |
| 27th United States Deputy National Security Advisor | |
| In office January 11, 2015 – January 20, 2017 |
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| President | Barack Obama |
| Leader | Susan Rice |
| Preceded by | Antony Blinken |
| Succeeded by | K. T. McFarland |
| 4th Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency | |
| In office August 9, 2013 – January 10, 2015 |
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| President | Barack Obama |
| Director | John Brennan |
| Preceded by | Michael Morell |
| Succeeded by | David S. Cohen |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Avril Danica Haines
August 27, 1969 New York City, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | David Davighi |
| Parent |
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| Education | University of Chicago (BA) Georgetown University (JD) |
Avril Danica Haines (born August 27, 1969) is an American lawyer who served as the seventh director of national intelligence in the Biden administration. She is the first woman to serve in this role. Haines previously was Deputy National Security Advisor and deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the Obama administration. Prior to her appointment to the CIA, she was Deputy Counsel to the President for National Security Affairs in the Office of White House Counsel.
Contents
Early life and education
Haines was born in New York City on August 27, 1969, to Adrian Rappin (née Adrienne Rappaport) and Thomas H. Haines. She grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Haines' mother, a painter, was Jewish. When Haines was 10, her mother developed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and contracted avian tuberculosis; Haines and her father nursed Adrian in a home ICU until her death when Haines was 15 years old. Her father, Thomas H. Haines, was a biochemist who graduated with a PhD from Rutgers University and helped in the formation of the CUNY School of Medicine, where he served as the chair of the biochemistry department.
After graduating from Hunter College High School, Haines moved to Japan for a year, where she enrolled at the Kodokan, an elite judo institute in Tokyo. In 1988, she enrolled in the University of Chicago where she studied physics. While attending the University of Chicago, she worked repairing car engines at a mechanic shop in Hyde Park. In 1991 she took up flying lessons in New Jersey, where she met her future husband, David Davighi. She graduated with a B.A. in physics in 1992.
In 1992, Haines moved to Baltimore, and enrolled as a doctoral student in physics at Johns Hopkins University. However, later that year, she dropped out and with her future husband purchased a bar in Fell's Point, Baltimore, which they turned into an independent bookstore and café. She named the store Adrian's Book Cafe, after her late mother; Adrian's realistic oil paintings filled the store. The bookstore won City Paper's "Best Independent Bookstore" in 1997 and was known for having an unusual collection of literary offerings, local writers, and small press publications. Adrian's hosted a number of literary readings. She served as the president of the Fell's Point Business Association until 1998.
In 1998, she enrolled at the Georgetown University Law Center, receiving her J.D. in 2001.
Career
Early government service
In 2001, Haines became a legal officer at the Hague Conference on Private International Law. In 2002, she became a law clerk for United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Judge Danny Julian Boggs. From 2003 until 2006, she worked in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the Department of State, first in the Office of Treaty Affairs and then in the Office of Political Military Affairs. From 2007 until 2008, she worked for the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations as Deputy Chief Counsel for the Majority Senate Democrats (under then chairman Joe Biden).
Obama administration
Haines worked for the State Department as the assistant legal adviser for treaty affairs from 2008 to 2010, when she was appointed to serve in the office of the White House counsel as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President for National Security Affairs at the White House.
On April 18, 2013, Obama nominated Haines to serve as Legal Adviser of the Department of State, to fill the position vacated after Harold Hongju Koh resigned to return to teaching at Yale Law School. However, on June 13, 2013, Obama withdrew Haines's nomination to be Legal Adviser of the Department of State, choosing instead to select her as Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Haines was nominated to replace Michael Morell, the CIA's deputy and former acting director. The office of the deputy director is not subject to Senate confirmation, with Haines subsequently taking office on August 9, 2013, the final day of Morrell's tenure. Haines was the first woman ever to hold the office of the deputy director, while Gina Haspel was the first female career intelligence officer to be named director.
Private sector
After leaving the White House, Haines was appointed to multiple posts at Columbia University. She was a senior research scholar and deputy director for the Columbia World Projects, a program designed to bring to bear academic scholarship on some of the most fundamental challenges the world is facing, and was designated the program's director in May 2020, replacing Nicholas Lemann. Haines was also a fellow at the Human Rights Institute and National Security Law Program at Columbia Law School.
Haines has been a member of the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service. She is also a distinguished fellow at the Institute for Security Policy and Law at Syracuse University.
Palantir and WestExec
Haines has consulted for Palantir Technologies, a data processing and analytics software solutions company that may have assisted with immigrant detention programs, and was an employee of WestExec Advisors, a consulting firm with a secretive client list that includes high-tech start-ups seeking Pentagon contracts. The firm was founded by Antony Blinken, Biden's secretary of state, and Michele Flournoy, a former Pentagon adviser.
In late June 2020, shortly after taking on the role of overseeing foreign policy and national security considerations for the Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign transition team, references to Palantir and other corporations for which Haines had worked were removed from her fellowship résumé posted on the website of the Brookings Institution.
In July 2021, an article in The American Prospect discussed Haines in their analysis of the connections between WestExec and the Biden administration.
Director of National Intelligence (2021–2025)
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On November 23, 2020, Joe Biden, then the president-elect, announced his nomination of Haines for the position of Director of National Intelligence; she became the first woman to hold the position.
On January 20, 2021, Haines was confirmed by the Senate in an 84–10 vote. She was the first nominee to be confirmed by the Senate, and was sworn in the next day by Vice President Kamala Harris.
In May 2022, she warned against Russia and China's efforts to "try to make inroads with partners of ours across the world," mentioning Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as examples.
Haines was awarded the Australian Intelligence Medal as part of the 2024 King's Birthday Honours by the Australian Government. She was awarded the decoration for "distinguished service to the National Intelligence Community."
See also
In Spanish: Avril Haines para niños
