Melissa K. Griffith

Melissa K. Griffith is a Lecturer in Technology and National Security at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She holds affiliations with the Alperovitch Institute and serves as a senior advisor to the Emerging Technologies Initiative. Her research focuses on intersections between technology, national security, and economic statecraft, with specialties in cybersecurity, semiconductors, and machine learning/artificial intelligence.

Griffith earned a Ph.D. (2020) and M.A. (2014) in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. in International Relations from Agnes Scott College (2011). She participated in the Fulbright Program as an English Teaching Assistant in Taiwan (2012-2013).

Previous roles include Director of Emerging Technology and National Security at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Science and Technology Innovation Program (STIP), Pre-Doctoral Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), and affiliations with UC Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC), George Washington University's Institute for International Science & Technology Policy (IISTP), the Research Institute on the Finnish Economy (ETLA), and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB).

Her work emphasizes global technology governance, semiconductor supply chains, AI policy, and the strategic implications of emerging technologies for international security frameworks.