Sandy Hodgkinson

former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, U.S. Dept. of Defense

Sandy Hodgkinson was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, Deputy to the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues at the State Department, and Director for International Justice at the National Security Council at the White House. Prior to that, Ms. Hodgkinson was Senior Advisor on Human Rights for the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) and the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq and Kuwait. She was a Middle East and North Africa Foreign Affairs Officer in the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Prior to entering civil service, Ms. Hodgkinson was in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps. Her assignments included: Prosecutor and Foreign Criminal Jurisdiction Officer for Europe and Southwest Asia; Court Commissioner for the Navy and Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals; and Country Program Manager for the Defense Institute for International Legal Studies. She is currently a Commander in the Navy Reserve JAG Corps and Acting Executive Officer of the Navy Reserve’s International and Operational Law Unit. Ms. Hodgkinson earned her B.A. at Tulane University (1992); her M.A. at the University of Denver Graduate School of International Studies (1995); and her J.D. at the University of Denver College of Law (1995). She has studied at l’Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris and the Hague Academy of International Law. Licensed to practice law in Washington, D.C. and Colorado, she has taught National Security Law at Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law and published articles on international and preventive law.