Celeste Wallander is the President and CEO of the non-profit U.S.-Russia Foundation.
She served as a professor in the Department of Government at Harvard University from 1989-2000, specializing in international affairs, security, Russia, Eurasia, and Europe. Later, Wallander joined the Council on Foreign Relations as a Senior Fellow, and in 2001 became Director and Senior Fellow of the Russia/Eurasia Program at CSIS. In 2009, she became Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia. In 2013, Wallander joined the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russia and Central Asia.