Statement by the Press Secretary

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice announced the appointment of Mary K. Sturtevant as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Intelligence Programs, National Security Council staff, effective July 9, 2001.

Ms. Sturtevant comes to the NSC from the Central Intelligence Agency, where she served in senior positions in the Directorate of Operations, the Directorate of Science and Technology, and as Agency Comptroller. In recent years, Ms. Sturtevant played a key role in the development of CIA's information operations program. Ms. Sturtevant also served as a senior staff member on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, where she provided oversight of tactical military and national foreign intelligence and counterintelligence programs. Earlier in her career, Ms. Sturtevant worked as an analyst with CIA's Directorate of Intelligence and at the BDM Corporation on technology transfer and arms control issues.

A native of California, Ms. Sturtevant has a B.A. from the University of California at Santa Barbara in History and Russian Area Studies and an M.A. in Soviet Studies and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies. Ms. Sturtevant and her husband, Alan V. Asay, live in Virginia with their son and daughter.