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Nancy Fortenberry delivered the Fourth Annual Birch Bayh Lecture on October 22 at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. She is one of the nation’s foremost experts on national security.

National security is a bipartisan effort, Fortenberry said, involving millions of dollars and the safety of us all. Public input is of vital importance in this endeavor, she said.

Fortenberry is the General Counsel to the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, Executive Office of the President, The White House, and previously served as Deputy Legal Advisor on the National Security Council Staff at The White House. She is also Associate General Counsel, in the Office of General Counsel, at the Central Intelligence Agency. Fortenberry is former Counsel to the Director of National Intelligence, Open Source Center. She is a National Security Crisis Law Fellow at the Georgetown University Law Center, and has over 25 years of experience in the National Security field.

Fortenberry earned a Certificate from the Senior Executive Fellows Program at the Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government. She also received a Certificate from the Excel: Intelligence Community Executive Leader Program at the Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management. Fortenberry holds an LL.M., with a certificate in National Security Law, from the Georgetown University Law Center; a J.D. from the American University, Washington College of Law; and a B.A. in Political Science, with Honors, from Jackson State University. She has completed 26 marathons on four continents. Fortenberry is a native of Gulfport, Mississippi, lives in the Washington, D.C., area, and regularly visits Zionsville, Indiana.

The Birch Bayh Lecture is an annual event at the school, established in honor of former U.S. Senator Birch Bayh. The lecture series, made possible through the generous contributions of the Simon Property Group where Senator Bayh served on the board for 17 years, and friends of Birch Bayh, focuses on issues of importance to Senator Bayh throughout his long and distinguished career in government.

In the photo, Fortenberry is shown with IU McKinney Dean Andrew Klein.