Conversation with Jake Sullivan

Yale-in-Washington is thrilled to present:

A conversation with Jake Sullivan, Director of Policy Planning at the State Department and Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary Clinton

Learn from an '04 YLS alum who has already become one of the nation's senior State Department officials, recently named by Time Magazine to be one of the "40 Under 40" rising stars of American politics.

Jake Sullivan is the Director of Policy Planning at the United States Department of State and Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Clinton. Prior to assuming his post as Director in February 2011, Mr. Sullivan had served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy since January 2009. He also served as Deputy Policy Director on then-Senator Clinton’s presidential campaign, and as a member of the debate preparation team for then-Senator Obama’s general election debates. Mr. Sullivan previously served as Chief Counsel and senior policy adviser to Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, his home state.

Trained as a lawyer, he worked as an associate at the Minneapolis law firm of Faegre & Benson and as an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas Law School. Mr. Sullivan served as a clerk for Judge Guido Calabresi of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for Justice Stephen Breyer of the United States Supreme Court.

Mr. Sullivan served in research posts for Leslie Gelb during Gelb’s tenure as President of the Council on Foreign Relations and for Strobe Talbott during Talbott’s time at the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. He also worked as a reporter and researcher at Time Magazine in London.

Mr. Sullivan graduated from Yale College with a degree in Political Science and International Studies. He earned an M.Phil. in International Relations from Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, where he served as managing editor of the Oxford International Review. He earned a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was an Articles Editor of the Yale Law Journal.