Nicholas J. Rasmussen served as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) from December 2014 to December 2017. He previously served as NCTC’s Deputy Director. From 2007 to 2012, he served with the National Security Council (NSC) staff as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism. He also served at NCTC from 2004 to 2007 in senior policy and planning positions, producing net assessments of U.S. counterterrorism policy and strategy for the NSC and the President. From 2001 to 2004 he served on the NSC staff as Director for Regional Affairs in the Office of Combating Terrorism where he focused on Middle East, Southeast Asia and related counterterrorism issues in the period after September 11, 2001. He joined the U.S. Department of State in 1991 as a Presidential Management Intern in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs and for more than a decade served in a variety of key positions. He was Special Assistant to the State Department's Special Middle East Coordinator, Ambassador Dennis Ross, from 1996 to 2001, providing support to the Arab-Israeli peace process. From 1994 to 1996 he was a Special Assistant to Ambassador-at-Large Robert Gallucci, providing analysis of the negotiation and implementation of the U.S.-North Korea Agreed Framework. He worked as a foreign affairs analyst in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs from 1991 to 1994 focusing on Persian Gulf security issues following Operation Desert Storm, including negotiation for U.S. forces' access and basing in the Persian Gulf. He received a B.A. degree with high honors from Wesleyan University and a Masters in Public and International Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal in 2017, the Distinguished Presidential Rank Award in 2016, an International Affairs Fellowship by the Council on Foreign Relations, and has taught a course on U.S. counterterrorism policy at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.