advanced search ›

Jennifer Weeks

Former Executive Director, Project on Managing the Atom

Contact:
Email: jweeks@nescaum.org

Experience

Jennifer Weeks is now a Senior Policy Analyst at Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM), an interstate association of air quality control divisions in the Northeast. She  leads and coordinates NESCAUM's work on climate change in the Northeast.

Jennifer Weeks was Executive Director of the Managing the Atom Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs of the John F. Kennedy School of Government. She oversaw all day-to-day aspects of this multi-year, interdisciplinary research project on nuclear security and energy policy, including project design and planning; fund raising; outreach to policy makers, researchers, and the media; coordinating workshops, colloquia, and other project activities; and conducting research. Her research interests include U.S. nonproliferation policy; Congress and the foreign policy process; and nuclear decision making in democratic societies.

Prior to joining Harvard in 1997, Weeks directed the Arms Control and International Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists and served as UCS’s principal arms control lobbyist on issues including nonproliferation, deep nuclear reductions, and multilateral peacekeeping. From 1991-94, she worked in the U.S. Congress as legislative assistant for defense, foreign affairs, trade, immigration, and veterans’ issues to Representative Jane Harman (D-CA), a member of the House National Security Committee, and as a defense analyst for the Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus. From 1989-91 Weeks researched nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons proliferation and export controls at the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control in Washington, D.C. Previously, she analyzed press coverage of arms control, defense, and East-West relations for the Center for War, Peace, and the News Media at New York University.

Weeks received a B.A. in history from Williams College in 1983 and an M.A. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1987. Her articles on defense and arms control issues have appeared in publications including the Harvard Political Review, Newsweek, the Christian Science Monitor, Columbia Journalism Review, and the New York Times. She sits on the executive board of Women in International Security and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.