Kathleen Troia “KT” McFarland is a national security commentator and columnist who appears weekly on a number of TV, online and national radio programs. Ms. McFarland held national security posts in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan Administrations, and received the Defense Department’s highest civilian award. She ran as a Republican candidate for the US Senate from New York in 2006. She has held posts in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan Administrations, as a research assistant for Henry A. Kissinger, as a staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and as a special assistant and speechwriter for Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger. A graduate of George Washington University, she received a combined master's degree in politics, philosopy and economics from Oxford University and a doctorate in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her father, A. J. Troia, was a train dispatcher for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad.