Mallory Ladd, Ph.D.

Mallory Ladd leads the Special Activities and Intelligence Program, which conducts analysis to help decision-makers across the Department of War integrate asymmetric and advanced capabilities into fleet operations. Her team assesses how to synchronize maneuver and non-kinetic effects, integrate operational teams, and optimize the extraction of operational value from information and intelligence feeds. 

She has served as the embedded CNA Scientific Analyst to the Surface Warfare Director in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV N96), where she conducted capabilities-based assessments of requirements for robotic and autonomous surface vehicles. She has deployed as the afloat CNA field representative to Commander of Carrier Strike Group One, providing analysis on the first operational employment of the F-35C fighter and the CMV-22B Osprey. Her recent projects include a readiness assessment of fleet cyber protection teams, an assessment of maritime logistics in the European theater in response to the Russia-Ukraine war, global integration of command and control across combatant commands, and two congressionally mandated studies on the oceanographic survey ship fleet and on Arctic naval infrastructure. She also leads CNA's Arctic Community of Interest.

Ladd was a 2022 MIT Seminar XXI Fellow and a 2021 Newport Arctic Scholar. Prior to joining CNA, she was a National Science Foundation doctoral fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She holds a PhD in analytical chemistry from the University of Tennessee and a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from the University of Toledo.