Fiona Hill

Hill, the daughter of a coal miner, attended Bishop Barrington Comprehensive School in County Durham.⁠[1]

She earned a master’s in Russian and modern history at St Andrews University in Scotland, studied at Moscow’s Maurice Thorez Institute of Foreign Languages and, as a Frank Knox Fellow, earned a master’s in Soviet studies and a doctorate in history at Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private research university in Massachusetts, established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony legislature in 1636 and named in 1639 for early benefactor John Harvard. Its principal campuses are in Cambridge and the Allston and Longwood neighborhoods of Boston. It includes Harvard College, graduate and professional schools, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Two governing boards share oversight. Alan M. Garber was president as of October 2026, and the endowment stood at $56.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2025.Open the full entry.⁠[2]

She received her Harvard A.M. in 1991 and her Ph.D. in 1998.⁠[3]

From 1991 to 1999 she directed technical assistance and research projects at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, serving as associate director of the Strengthening Democratic Institutions Project, director of the Project on Ethnic Conflict in the Former Soviet Union and coordinator of the Trilateral Study on Japanese-Russian-U.S. Relations.⁠[4]

Before joining Brookings in 2000 she was director of strategic planning at the Eurasia Foundation in Washington, D.C.⁠[5]

She became a U.S. citizen in 2002; she is married with one daughter.⁠[1]

From 2006 to 2009 she was national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the U.S. National Intelligence Council, and from 2009 to 2017 she directed the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings.⁠[2]

In February 2013 Brookings presented Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin, which she co-wrote with Clifford G. Gaddy.⁠[6]

In 2017 she left Brookings to join the Trump administration as senior director for European and Russian affairs at the National Security Council; she had a hand in the Helsinki summit with Putin and in policies such as arms deliveries to Ukraine, expulsions of Russian diplomats and tighter sanctions on Moscow.⁠[7]

Some current and former officials said she was at times marginalized in policymaking; others disputed this, saying she played a pivotal role in day-to-day Russia policy and coordination with European allies.⁠[7]

On June 18, 2019, it emerged that she would leave the Trump administration that summer and be replaced by the arms-control specialist Tim Morrison; she was expected to stay at least through Trump’s planned meeting with Putin at the G20 summit in Osaka.⁠[8]

On October 14, 2019, she testified behind closed doors in the House impeachment inquiry into Trump, saying she had raised concerns with NSC colleagues about the Ukraine work of top White House figures and that EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland had openly referred, at a July 10 meeting, to a quid pro quo linking a presidential meeting to Ukraine announcing investigations.⁠[9]

At a public House Intelligence Committee hearing on November 21, 2019, she said that some committee members appeared to believe Russia had not conducted a campaign against the country and that perhaps Ukraine had, adding: “This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves.”⁠[10]

Republican members pushed back: the committee’s top Republican, Devin Nunes, held up its 2018 report finding that Russia interfered in the election; Elise Stefanik said no Republican on the committee had denied Russian meddling in 2016; and Mike Turner and Brad Wenstrup called her statement untrue.⁠[11]

Republicans and Trump’s allies also stressed that witnesses knew of some events only second-hand and that Trump had repeatedly said there was no quid pro quo, arguing that the impression that military aid had been leveraged for investigations was speculation.⁠[12]

On October 5, 2021, Mariner Books published her memoir There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century, recounting how she overcame economic and social barriers growing up in northern England and addressing the inequality she sees in the United States; Kirkus Reviews called it “A shrewd, absorbing memoir.”⁠[13]

She appeared on episode 335 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, whose description calls her a presidential advisor and foreign policy expert specializing in Russia; topics included her education and career, Donald Trump’s foreign policy, her impeachment testimony, Vladimir Putin, the invasion of Ukraine, NATO, the risk of nuclear war and how the war might end.⁠[14]

On November 28, 2022, Durham University confirmed her as successor to Sir Tom Allen as chancellor; she called it “an immense privilege, surprise and honour” to be chosen in the county where generations of her family have deep roots and where she spent her formative years.⁠[1]

In December 2022 she delivered the BBCBBCThe BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is the United Kingdom’s public broadcaster. Its predecessor was the British Broadcasting Company, formed in 1922, and since 1927 it has been established under a Royal Charter. It provides television, radio, and online services in the UK, is funded mainly by the television licence fee, and broadcasts worldwide in multiple languages through BBC World Service.Open the full entry Reith Lecture “Freedom from Fear,” and that month she was awarded the Insignia of Knight First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland.⁠[5]

In May 2023 she and four other alumni were elected to the Harvard Board of Overseers for six-year terms.⁠[3]

In June 2023 she was installed as Durham University’s 13th chancellor at a ceremony in Durham Cathedral; she said her life had “literally taken me from coal-house to the White House.”⁠[15]

In July 2024 Prime Minister Keir Starmer appointed her, alongside former defence secretary and NATO secretary general Lord Robertson and General Sir Richard Barrons, former Commander Joint Forces Command, to lead a Strategic Defence Review overseen by Defence Secretary John Healey, focusing on NATO leadership, homeland security, support for Ukraine and modernising the nuclear deterrent.⁠[16]

The Strategic Defence Review she co-led was published on June 2, 2025, with 62 recommendations, which the government said it accepted and would implement.⁠[17]

Brookings: Official website: https://www.brookings.edu/ (opens in a new window)⁠[5]

Durham University: Official website: https://www.durham.ac.uk/ (opens in a new window)⁠[15]