RUTHFULLY YOURS

Mr. Pompeo described Ms. Skinner as “a national security powerhouse” and “a one-woman, strategic thinking tour de force” in a statement to The Wall Street Journal. “I’m confident that she will enhance our influence overseas, protect the American people, and promote our prosperity,” he said.

Foreign policy experts and former holders of the post said Ms. Skinner’s impact will depend on how Mr. Pompeo structures the job, and whether the administration is open to her ideas. “The real question is how will the new director’s role be defined?” said longtime diplomat Dennis Ross, who held the post during the George H.W. Bush administration.

As director of the Policy Planning Staff, Ms. Skinner will be responsible for providing strategic guidance and helping ensure that the day-to-day efforts of the department serve the overall strategy. Ms. Skinner will start on Sept. 4, succeeding Brian Hook, who now heads the State Department’s Iran Action Group.

A key role will be framing U.S. foreign policy against the backdrop of President Trump’s Twitter posts and offhand comments, which frequently catch top advisers by surprise.

During Mr. Trump’s presidential run, Ms. Skinner served as a foreign policy surrogate for the campaign, appearing on television to discuss his objectives. She later joined the State Department and National Security Council “landing teams” during the presidential transition to help staff both entities. She also helped prepare former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for Senate confirmation proceedings.

In an interview, Ms. Skinner described an emerging “Trump Doctrine, or America First foreign policy,” in which the U.S. exercises global leadership while simultaneously sharing the burdens of world crises with other countries. While the past two administrations struggled following the 2001 terrorist attacks, she said, the current administration can craft a longer-term approach.

“I really see the Trump administration as an opportunity to lead us into a grand strategy,” she said.

Ms. Skinner aims to use the administration’s national-security strategy published in December 2017 as the “baseline” for her work, but anticipates updates to the strategy.

Ms. Skinner is director of the Institute for Politics and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon University and the W. Glenn Campbell Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution. She previously served on the Defense Department’s Defense Policy Board. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree from Spelman College. She also has been a Fox News contributor.

Ms. Skinner invoked history in describing her new post, citing guidance issued in 1947 by then-Secretary of State George Marshall to George Kennan, founding director of the Policy Planning Staff, to “avoid trivia”—suggesting this will guide her approach to the role.

Born on Chicago’s South Side and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area by parents “deeply involved in the civil-rights movement,” Ms. Skinner said that she shares the commitment—though not the party affiliation—of her grandmother, a Democratic Party precinct captain in Chicago.

“I care more about the republic than partisan politics in the United States,” she said.

“I really feel as an African American that we have a deep stake in the direction of our country and that there’s a natural connection between who we are and America’s role in the world, and that we need to be at the table across all political parties in the United States,” Ms. Skinner said. CONTINUE AT SITE