Dr. George Ellard has served in each branch of the federal government. Most recently, he served for almost ten years as the National Security Agency’s Inspector General, responsible for the effectiveness and legal compliance of all Agency programs. He also served as Counsel to the Congressional inquiry into the September 11terrorist attacks and drafted classified and public reports that recommended transformational changes in the intelligence and law-enforcement communities. Dr. Ellard was Chief of Staff to the presidential commission that examined U.S. counterintelligence programs in the wake of the most damaging espionage in U.S. history, perpetrated by senior FBI official, Robert Hanssen. He was Chief Counsel to Senator Joseph Biden and to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime. As Senior Counsel in an investigation of a Cabinet agency, Dr. Ellard secured five indictments focused on corruption in public office. He also conducted several sensitive investigations of behalf of the U.S. Attorney General and has clerked on a federal Court of Appeals. Before joining the NSA, Dr. Ellard led the criminal-defense practice of a Washington, D.C. law firm.
Dr. Ellard received a law degree, as well as a Ph.D. in philosophy, from Yale University, where he was Editor of the Yale Law Journal. He has been a member of the philosophy faculty at the University of Tübingen in Germany and several U.S universities. Dr. Ellard has published widely on law and public policy and has been a guest speaker at the Yale Law School, Princeton and Cambridge Universities, and many other academic institutions.
FUNCTIONAL EXPERTISE: Congressional Oversight, Political and Moral Theory, U.S. Intelligence Community
EMAIL: george.ellard.civ@ndu.edu