Caption: Kenneth A. Myers (DTRA photo)

Mr. Myers is the Director for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the U.S. Strategic Command Center for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction (SCC-WMD). Both are co-located on Fort Belvoir, VA. He assumed these responsibilities on July 27, 2009.

The DTRA mission is to safeguard the U.S. and its allies from Weapons of Mass Destruction (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear) and High Yield Explosives by providing capabilities to reduce, eliminate, and counter the threat and mitigate its effects. The agency is the Department of Defense’s Combat Support Agency for the Combating WMD (CWMD) mission and develops improved CWMD capabilities for the warfighter. The mission of the SCC-WMD is to synchronize the CWMD plans of the warfighters, and identify and advocate for needed CWMD capabilities. Together, these organizations provide CWMD expertise, support, and products at strategic (global and national), operational (theater and regional), and tactical (battlefield) levels to prevent the proliferation of WMD, deter and defeat WMD use, and reduce the effects of WMD that may be used against us.

During his leadership of DTRA and the SCC-WMD, Mr. Myers has further integrated the two organizations into an even more effective team; strengthened coordination and synchronization of CWMD plans, research and development programs, and support to CWMD operations across the Department, the U.S. Government, and among international partners; and directed programs to implement the President’s vision for global biological threat reduction and engagement and nuclear security, improved WMD defeat capabilities including the transition of the Massive Ordnance Penetrator for the defeat of underground WMD facilities to the Air Force for final testing.

To better implement the President’s nuclear and biological security policy initiatives and the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, Mr. Myers developed a new strategy to guide DTRA and the SCC-WMD. Named after the sponsors of the legislation that Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program, Former Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA) and Senator Dick Lugar (R-IN), the Nunn-Lugar Global Cooperation Strategy applies the lessons learned from the execution of the CTR program to the new security environment. The strategy calls for more agile, flexible, anticipatory, and responsive nonproliferation programs and activities to meet emerging WMD threats and maximize opportunities for WMD threat reduction in cooperation with partners around the world. This strategy also increased DTRA/SCC-WMD support to the Combatant Commands’ theater security engagement efforts that shape more stable regional security environments.

Prior to arriving at DTRA, Myers served from 2003 to 2009 as a Senior Professional Staff Member on the Committee on Foreign Relations in the U.S. Senate. He also served as the senior advisor to Senator Dick Lugar, the Committee’s Ranking Minority Member, on European, Former Soviet Union and Central Asian Affairs, and the Caucasus, as well as for arms control, arms sales, and CWMD matters. He assisted Senator Lugar on the Nunn-Lugar CTR program, the U.S./Russian relationship, arms control, security and confidence building measures, and NATO and European Union issues. He had a leading role in several critical foreign policy debates including NATO enlargement, the Moscow and Strategic Arms Reduction treaties, U.S. nonproliferation and counterproliferation policies, export controls, the U.S./India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act, and the Lugar-Obama Cooperative Proliferation Detection, Interdiction Assistance, and Conventional Threat Reduction Act. In addition, he was a regular advisor on U.S. policy towards the Middle East, South Asia, and North Korea and was also responsible for reviewing nominees for ambassadorial posts in Europe and the Former Soviet Union.

From 1995 to 2002, Myers served as a legislative assistant for National Security and Foreign Affairs for Senator Lugar. He assisted the Senator in his role as a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Senate’s National Security Working Group and Russia Working Group.

Prior to joining the Senator’s staff, Myers was a senior associate at the firm of Robinson Lake Sawyer Miller in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in U.S. public and private sector investments to the successor states to the Former Soviet Union and was responsible for establishing that firm’s office in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Myers holds a master's degree from the Catholic University of America and a bachelor's degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.