The inspiration for Kelly McGillis’ character in Top Gun, Christine Fox is the Assistant Director for Policy and Analysis of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Prior to joining APL, she served as Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense from December 2013 to May 2014, making her the highest-ranking female official in history to serve in the Department of Defense. Ms. Fox is a three-time recipient of the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal. She has also been awarded the Department of the Army’s Decoration for Distinguished Civilian Service.
Ms. Fox currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Board on Mathematical Sciences and their Applications (BMSA) at the National Research Council, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
With nearly 6,000 staff at what is the nation’s largest University Affiliated Research Center, Johns Hopkins APL makes critical contributions to a wide variety of national and global technical and scientific challenges. As the Director of Policy and Analysis, Ms. Fox leads efforts to increase APL’s engagement on technical policy issues and directs research and analysis projects on behalf of the Department of Defense, the intelligence community, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and other federal agencies.