Melissa Dalton

Senior Adviser (Non-resident), Defense Budget Analysis and Aerospace Security Project
Melissa Dalton

Melissa G. Dalton is a lifetime public servant and mission-focused leader with over two decades of experience advancing U.S. national security across the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Ms. Dalton served as the 28th Under Secretary of the Air Force, overseeing a $200 billion budget and 700,000 personnel across the Air Force and Space Force. Her leadership in the Biden administration also included performing the duties of Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and serving as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities. Previously, she spent over a decade as a career civil servant in the Bush and Obama administrations. In the private and research sectors, she is the Founder of Potomac River Strategies, LLC, advising defense and technology companies on growth and geopolitical risk and opportunities. She conducts analysis for MIT Lincoln Laboratory and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. She held senior leadership and analytic roles at the Center for Strategic and International Studies from 2014 to 2021. A recipient of the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal, she serves as a Senior Advisor to the University of Virginia’s Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and on the Boards of the Saber Six Foundation and Girl Security. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and holds an MA from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a BA from the University of Virginia.

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Golden Dome One Year In

Please join the CSIS Aerospace Security Project and Missile Defense Project for a conversation about the Golden Dome for America.

Event — February 13, 2026

Trump Restructures the Pentagon Budget: Two Views

Who should win and lose under Secretary Hegseth’s direction to reallocate 8 percent of DOD’s budget? CSIS experts Mark Cancian and Melissa Dalton took very different approaches in a recent exercise: a global focus (Cancian) versus the implications of the administration's strategy (Dalton).

Report by Mark F. Cancian and Melissa Dalton — April 16, 2025

Buttressing Institutional Integrity in an Election Year

How can the laws, policies, processes, historical precedents, and institutional norms guiding federal force roles be tested during a presidential election and transition?

Brief by Devi Nair, Suzanne Spaulding, and Melissa Dalton — October 27, 2020