Biography: Mary Alice Hayward

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy and Negotiations
Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation

Ms. Hayward is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy and Negotiations in the Department of State’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation. Her portfolio includes preventing the smuggling of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), destruction of WMD and their delivery systems, international threat reduction, nuclear nonproliferation policies, tracking, controlling, and securing dangerous materials, including fissile and radiological materials and pathogens, multilateral arms control, nonproliferation, WMD terrorism, disarmament issues, and nuclear energy policy.

Prior to joining the Department of State, Ms. Hayward served as a Director for Counterproliferation Strategy at the National Security Council in the White House. Her responsibilities included making policy recommendations to the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the President on key policy priorities in nuclear nonproliferation, nuclear energy, multilateral organizations, treaty regimes, missile defense, export controls, and threat reduction issues. Ms. Hayward also chaired policy coordinating committee meetings on these issues and worked with the Office of Management and Budget to ensure appropriate resources were applied to execute policy.

Prior to joining the National Security Council, Ms. Hayward served as the Secretary of Energy’s Senior Policy Advisor for National Security Matters. In this capacity, Ms. Hayward advised the Secretary on a broad range of national security matters, including nuclear nonproliferation, maintenance of a safe, secure and reliable nuclear weapons stockpile, international nuclear safety, and the naval nuclear propulsion program.

Previously, Ms. Hayward was a Professional Staff Member for the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee and the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities. Her oversight and policy responsibilities included arms control, export controls, weapons of mass destruction threat reduction, WMD nonproliferation, and nuclear matters.

Prior to her work in the U.S. Senate, Ms. Hayward was the Senior Manager for Outreach and Strategic Planning for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Materials Protection, Control and Accounting Program in the Office of International Materials Protection and Emergency Cooperation where her primary focused centered on Russian threat reduction activities.

Before joining the Department of Energy, Ms. Hayward was Senior Evaluator for Nuclear Issues at the U.S. General Accounting Office where she received the Energy and Science Issues Excellence Award for her work in nuclear nonproliferation and the U.S. General Accounting Office’s Outstanding Achievement Award for Excellence in Evaluating Government Programs.

Ms. Hayward holds a Masters degree in political science with a specialty in Latin American political economies from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was recognized as a National Hispanic Scholar. She received her BA from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in Anthropology and Foreign Languages. Ms. Hayward is fluent in Spanish.