Stephanie Barna
Currently, Of Counsel in the Public Policy Practice Group of Covington & Burling, LLP, Washington, DC. Previously served on Capitol Hill as General Counsel of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and in the Pentagon, performing the duties of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel & Readiness in the Department of Defense and as a Deputy General Counsel in the Department of the Army.
Why the public sector?
It was my love of country that motivated me to join the Army in 1989, after graduating law school and passing the bar. For 28 years in the executive branch, as a military officer, civilian employee, senior executive, and political appointee, I interpreted and implemented law and policy in the Department of Defense. In my last three years of federal service, I transitioned to the legislative branch as a member of the senior staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The challenge of this new role was to envision and design what the law and policy around our national security should be. Public service gave me a sense of mission and purpose, a sense that working hard and doing my best made a difference . . . whether in our military operations, in the lives of our service members and their families, or in helping to shape the National Defense Authorization Act.
Why are you excited about becoming an Academy Fellow?
NAPA provides another chance to serve, and to do so with an incredibly talented group of people from a diversity of professions, backgrounds, and experiences. Yet as different as we are, I know that we share the commitment and will to continue working toward improvements in our institutions and governance, better to serve our nation and its citizens. As activist and author John W. Gardner once stated, “[t]here are men and women who make the world better just by being the kind of people they are.” I think many such men and women are here at NAPA. NAPA is also a platform from which to advocate for the future of public service and to support and encourage the next generation of public servants as they pick up the torch.
