On February 1, the Perry Center honored Professor Celina Realuyo for twenty years of government service. Beginning her career as a US Foreign Service Officer with the Department of State, Professor Realuyo spent time abroad in Madrid, Panama, and at the US Mission to NATO, Brussels, and Belgium. Prior to joining the faculty at the Perry Center she served at the highest levels of government, working in the State Department Operations Center, the National Security Council’s White House Situation Room, and as Special Assistant to the Secretary of State. As part of the Secretary of State’s Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism and the US Interagency Terrorist Financing Working Group, she successfully helped the US deliver training and technical assistance to over 20 countries across four continents.

Professor Realuyo began her work with the National Defense University in 2007 and the Perry Center in 2011. During her tenure as a professor at the Perry Center, her research on terrorism, illicit networks, and transitional organized crime has been widely published and cited by think tanks, academic journals, and government organizations. The Perry Center thanks Professor Realuyo for her two decades of dedicated service to the United States Government and looks forward to many more years of working with her as part of the Perry Center faculty.