Richard Verma

Fellow

Rich Verma is a Senior Fellow at American Progress, where he provides strategic advice and works with the National Security and International Policy team, among other assignments.

Rich is a partner at the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson LLP and counselor to the Albright Stonebridge Group, a global consulting firm. Rich most recently served as the assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, where he was a principal advisor to Secretary Clinton.

Rich formerly was the senior national security advisor to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and he has worked in the House of Representatives for the late Congressman John P. Murtha (D-PA).

In 2008 he was appointed a member of the Commission to Prevent Weapons of Mass Destruction and Terrorism, and he also served as a member of the Defense Department Presidential Transition Team. Rich is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and also a former country director for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.

Rich is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and on the Board of Advisors of the Center for a New American Security. He has degrees from Georgetown University Law Center (L.L.M.), the American University (J.D.), and Lehigh University (B.S.).