Rosa Brooks American law professor, journalist, author, and foreign policy commentator Date of Birth: 01.01.1970 Country: USA

1. Early Life and Education
2. Academic Career
3. Government Service
4. Journalism and Public Commentary
5. Activism and Leadership
6. Authorship
7. Personal Life

Early Life and Education

Rosa Brooks was born in a New York City public hospital. Growing up, she lived with her birth parents, writer Barbara Ehrenreich and psychologist John Ehrenreich, as well as adoptive parents Gary Stevenson and Sharon McQuaide. After attending Syosset High School for two years, she dropped out at 16 and enrolled at Harvard University. In 1991, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in history and literature from Harvard, where she was president of the Phillips Brooks House Association. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and went on to become a Marshall Scholar at Christ Church, Oxford, receiving an MPhil in social anthropology in 1993. In 1996, she obtained a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School.

Academic Career

Brooks taught at Yale Law School, where she directed the Human Rights Program. She was a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, served on the board of Amnesty International USA, and was an Executive Council member of the American Society of International Law. She also held positions with the Open Society Foundation's US Programs Foundation and the US State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.

In 2001, Brooks became an associate professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. From 2007 onwards, she held a professorship at Georgetown University Law Center. Her academic work focused on national security, terrorism, and the rule of law, as well as international law, human rights, and law of war. She co-authored the book "Can Might Make Right?: Building the Rule of Law After Military Intervention" (2006) with Jane Stromseth and David Wippman.

Government Service

From April 2009 to July 2011, Brooks took a leave of absence from Georgetown to serve as Counselor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Michelle Flournoy. For her work at the Department of Defense, she received the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service.

Journalism and Public Commentary

In 2005, Brooks became a weekly columnist for the Los Angeles Times. She has also been a contributing editor of Foreign Policy magazine and has written for publications such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Wall Street Journal. Brooks is a frequent guest on television and radio shows, discussing national security, criminal justice, democracy, and the rule of law.

Activism and Leadership

Brooks founded the Center for Innovation in Public Safety at Georgetown Law, which launched a "Police of Tomorrow" fellowship program with the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department in 2017. She is the founder of the Women in National Security Leadership Council and the Transition Integrity Project. In 2021, Washingtonian magazine named Brooks one of "Washington's Most Powerful People."

Authorship

Brooks is the author of two books. Her 2016 work, "How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything Else," was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and was included on Military Times' list of top ten books. In 2021, she published "Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the American City," drawing on her experience as a reserve police officer in Washington, D.C.

Personal Life

Brooks has two children. She was previously married to Yale literary critic Peter Brooks and is now married to LTC Joseph Maurer, a retired Army Special Forces officer.