Avril Haines

Avril Haines served as the seventh Director of National Intelligence of the United States from 2021 to 2025, becoming the first woman to lead the nation's 18-member Intelligence Community. In this cabinet-level role, she oversaw intelligence collection, analysis, and integration across agencies including the CIA and NSA, focusing on threats from China, Russia, and transnational issues like cybersecurity and pandemics. Prior to her DNI tenure, Haines held senior positions in the Obama administration, including Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2013 to 2015—the first woman in that post—and Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from 2015 to 2017, where she chaired the Deputies Committee on foreign policy formulation. Her career also involved shaping U.S. drone strike policies and managing the "disposition matrix" for targeting terrorists. Haines's leadership drew recognition for declassifying intelligence on Russian invasion plans for Ukraine in 2022, aiding allied preparedness, but faced criticism for decisions like overruling internal probes into CIA surveillance of Senate investigators in 2015 and handling of agency accountability in counterterrorism operations.

Avril Haines was born on August 27, 1969, in Manhattan, New York City, to Thomas H. Haines, a biochemist and academic, and Adrian Rappin Haines, an artist who transitioned from scientific pursuits to painting. Her father was not Jewish, while her mother, originally Adrian Rappaport, came from a Jewish background, and Haines was raised in her mother's Jewish faith.