Jessica Stern.
Expert on Terrorism & Trauma · Writer · Speaker
NEW BOOK: Preventing Public Violence (Harvard University Press, forthcoming 2027).
A public-health approach to preventing terrorism and public violence. Drawing on deidentified cases and on research evaluating intervention programs, the book shows how communities can recognize the warning signs and intervene before an attack.
Research Professor at Boston University's Pardee School of Global Studies; Senior Fellow at Harvard's School of Public Health and at the Center for Naval Analyses
Studies and evaluates community-based programs designed to prevent public violence, at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Advises government agencies on terrorism and the prevention of public violence, and holds an active top-secret security clearance
Awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for work on trauma and violence
Selected as a Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Distinguished Scholar
Served on President Clinton’s National Security Council Staff and was recognized by FBI Director Robert Mueller for her assistance to the U.S. government
Featured as one of seven “thinkers” in Time Magazine’s 100 innovators series
Author of numerous articles and five books, including Terror in the Name of God—selected by the New York Times as a notable book of the year—and Denial: A Memoir of Terror, named a best book of the year by the Washington Post
Served as Erik Erikson Fellow; World Economic Forum Fellow; International Affairs Fellow; and Superterrorism Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations
Member, Council on Foreign Relations
Awarded fellowships at Yaddo and MacDowell
Senior Fellow, Harvard’s School of Public Health and at Center for Naval Analyses
Worked as an analyst at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Served as inspiration for the character of Dr. Julia Kelly in the 1997 film The Peacemaker from her work at the National Security Council
Earned a doctorate from Harvard University in public policy; a master’s degree from MIT in technology policy; and a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College in chemistry; graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Psychoanalysis
“A woman with throw-weight.”
—The Washington Post
Engage Jessica.
Books.
Praise.
Stern’s firsthand encounters bring a valuable and much-needed perspective to the problem of religious violence.
— Publishers Weekly
Stern studies those who kill innocents for political gain. While others debate theories of terrorism from the safety of the ivory tower, Stern travels the world to meet those who actually commit the acts.
— Time Magazine
“Jessica Stern is among the world’s experts on violence and evil.”
— The New York Times
No scholar has done more than Jessica Stern to make the phenomenon of terrorism comprehensible.
—Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (2005-2009)
“Should be required reading for every politician and policymaker.”
— The Washington Post
