November 5, 2004—Intelligence and arms control expert Jennifer Sims '78 will deliver a free, public lecture titled "U.S. Intelligence Reform: So Far, We're Getting it Wrong," Monday, November 15, at 4:30 p.m. in the Hallock Auditorium of Oberlin College's Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies, 122 Elm St.

Sims, a recipient of the U.S. intelligence community's distinguished service medal, is a professor in the Edmund A. Walsh Security Studies Program of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She also consults for the U.S. government and private sector on homeland security and intelligence related matters.

The Oberlin alumna has served as a professional staff member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (1991-1994), as deputy assistant secretary of state for intelligence coordination (1994-1998), and as the state department's first coordinator for intelligence resources and planning in the office of the under secretary for management. Before joining the Georgetown faculty, Sims was a research professor at Johns Hopkins University's Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington D.C.  

Sims is the author of a number of books and articles on intelligence and arms control, including Icarus Restrained: An Intellectual History of American Arms Control (Westview Press). Among her most recent articles are "Domestic Factors in Arms Control: The U.S. Case" in Arms Control: Cooperative Security in a Changing Environment, Jeffrey A Larson (ed.); and "What is Intelligence? Information for Decision-Makers" in U.S. Intelligence at the Crossroads by Roy Godson, Ernest R. May, and Gary Schmitt.

Sims received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in national security studies from Johns Hopkins University in 1985.

The November talk is the second in a series of lectures this year made possible by the College's department of politics and the Richard R. Hallock Foundation, which is dedicated to examining the challenges of national security in the 21st century. The late Richard Reid Hallock '41 had a deep interest in issues of national security and was an advisor to U.S. Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger.