Sandra L. Hodgkinson, Esq.
U.S. Department of Defense

Sandra L. Hodgkinson is currently serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs. She recently departed her position as Deputy to the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes at U.S. State Department, where she provided support to international justice mechanisms around the globe and coordinated engagement with foreign governments on repatriation of their nationals captured in the war on terror from Guantanamo Bay. She also served as Director for International Justice at the National Security Council, White House, from May 2004- December 2005. In that capacity, she prepared policy papers for the President and the National Security Advisor, and coordinated interagency efforts, on international tribunals, detention, trafficking in persons, international treaty reports, refugees, migration, and rule of law. Prior to this assignment, she was a Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. From February 2003-February 2004, Ms. Hodgkinson served in Kuwait and Iraq as the Senior Advisor to the newly established Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights, and as a Director for the Coalition Provisional Authority’s Office of Human Rights and Transitional Justice which addressed mass graves and supported the Iraqi-efforts to create the Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) which tried Saddam Hussein.

Prior to the State Department, Ms. Hodgkinson spent six years on active duty in the U.S. Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps, and has recently been selected for Commander in the Navy Reserve JAG Corps. Sandy has published 7 law review or journal articles on international and preventive law. This past semester, she taught National Security Law at Catholic University.

Education
J.D., University of Denver College of Law
M.A., University of Denver (international studies)
B.A., Tulane University

Admitted to Practice
District of Columbia
State of Colorado

Languages
French
Spanish
Italian