From 2009 to 2017, Ben Rhodes served as Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama overseeing the Administration's national security communications, speechwriting, public diplomacy and global engagement programming.
Prior to joining the Obama Administration, from 2007-2008 Rhodes was a senior speech-writer and foreign policy advisor to the Obama campaign. Before joining then Senator Obama's campaign, he worked for former Congressman Lee Hamilton from 2002-2007. He was the co-author, with Tom Keen and Lee Hamilton, of Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission.
A native New Yorker, Rhodes has a B.A. from Rice University and an M.F.A. from New York University.