Dr. Rachel Riley
Chief of Naval Research
Dr. Rachel Riley joins the Office of Naval Research from the Department of Health and Human Services, where she served as a Special Advisor to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on a wide variety of topics related to operations and operational efficiency, including personnel, contracts and grants.
Previously, Dr. Riley was a Partner in McKinsey & Company’s Public Sector and People/Organizational Performance practices, where she led teams advising government and private sector clients on topics encompassing strategy, transformation and organizational design for efficiency and speed. She specialized in leading large, complex transformations involving a wide range of stakeholders.
Prior to joining McKinsey, Dr. Riley — a proficient speaker of Mandarin Chinese — completed a PhD in Social Policy and a Master of Science in Contemporary Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. Her PhD research focused on how the Chinese government used (or failed to use) real-world data from policy experiments to refine its family planning policies — those often referred to collectively as the “One Child Policy.”
Dr. Riley earned a B.S. and B.A. from Wofford College, focusing on Business Economics and Chinese Language and Culture.
Dr. Riley is married to a U.S. Army Veteran and has three sons, all with deep roots in the mountains of Tennessee. She was a varsity member and two-year captain of Wofford College’s Lady Terriers Volleyball Team.