The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation hosts private events for Members of Congress and their staffs. The events listed below are open only to Members of Congress or Congressional staffers, as indicated.
Virtual Staff Briefings
- February 5: The World After New START with Daryl Kimball and Dr. Tara Drozdenko
In-Person Staff Briefings
- January 28: The Doomsday Clock Announcement: How Close Are We to Midnight? with Alexandra Bell, Daniel Holz and Reja Younis
- February 25: Nuclear Weapons 201: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Nuclear Weapons (But Were Afraid to Ask) with Sharon Squassoni and Mackenzie Knight-Boyle
Members-Only Dinners
- February 2: Breaking Down The 2026 Doomsday Clock Announcement, with the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
January 28: The Doomsday Clock Announcement: How Close Are We to Midnight?
WHEN: 12-1 p.m. ET
WHERE: S-115 (Capitol building — Senate side)
RSVP HERE
Lunch will be provided!
Last year, the Doomsday Clock was set to 89 seconds to midnight, symbolizing the closest we’ve ever been to a human-made global catastrophe in the Clock’s almost eighty-year history. With the start of the new year, how close are we to midnight now? What can be done to reverse the Clock and give us more time?
Join the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation as we team up with the keepers of the Clock, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, to breakdown the 2026 Doomsday Clock Announcement and the nuclear dangers facing our world today.
- Alexandra Bell is the president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Before joining the Bulletin, Bell served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Affairs in the Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability (ADS) at the US State Department, where she managed the Offices of Strategic Stability and Deterrence and Multilateral and Nuclear Affairs. From 2017 to 2021, Bell was the Senior Policy Director at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation and the Council for a Livable World. Previously, Bell served as a Senior Advisor in the Office of the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security and as an Advisor in ADS, then named the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance. Before joining the State Department in 2010, she worked on nuclear policy issues at the Ploughshares Fund and the Center for American Progress.
- Daniel Holz is the Chair of the Doomsday Clock’s Science and Security Board. He is a professor at the University of Chicago in the Departments of Physics, Astronomy & Astrophysics, the Enrico Fermi Institute, and the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics. His research focuses on general relativity in the context of astrophysics and cosmology. He is a member of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) collaboration and was part of the team that announced the first detection of gravitational waves in early 2016 and the first multi-messenger detection of a binary neutron star in 2017. Holz is also founding director of the University of Chicago Existential Risk Laboratory (XLab). He received a 2012 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the 2015 Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2016. Holz was selected as a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He received his PhD in physics from the University of Chicago and his AB in physics from Princeton University.
- Reja Younis is an associate fellow with the Project on Nuclear Issues in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She is also a PhD student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a predoctoral fellow with the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs. At CSIS, she leads research on nuclear deterrence and nuclear strategy. Prior to working at CSIS, she completed a year-long fellowship with the Stimson Center, where she conducted research on nuclear deterrence and escalation in South Asia. Reja holds a BS in social sciences and liberal arts from the Institute of Business Administration and graduated with highest honors in political science. She completed her MA in international relations from the University of Chicago.
The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation is a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan organization funded by foundations and contributions from individuals. There is no taxpayer, corporate, political, or lobbyist funding for this project.
February 5: The World After New START
WHEN: 12 p.m.
WHERE: Virtual
REGISTER: Register here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the briefing.
On February 5, the last nuclear arms control agreement between the United States and Russia will expire – and there is no plan in place for what’s next. Will we enter a period of nuclear anarchy with no agreements limiting nuclear arsenals? Will we see informal agreements to extend the limits under New START? What is the role of Congress?
Join the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation for a congressional staff briefing in which we explore the nuclear weapons and arms control landscape following February 5 and the expiration of the New START treaty.
- Daryl Kimball has been Executive Director of the Arms Control Association (ACA) and publisher and contributor for the organization’s monthly journal, Arms Control Today, since September 2001. From 1997 to 2001, he was the executive director of the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers, a consortium of 17 of the largest U.S. non-governmental organizations working together to strengthen national and international security by reducing the threats posed by nuclear weapons. From 1989-1997, Kimball worked as the Associate Director for Policy and later, the Director of Security Programs for Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), where he organized media, lobbying and public education campaigns against nuclear weapons production and testing, and research projects on the health and environmental impacts of the nuclear arms race.
- Tara Drozdenko is the director for the Global Security Program. She brings nearly two decades of experience in the national security field. She has worked on issues related to weapons of mass destruction for both the U.S. Navy and U.S. State Department. While at the State Department, Drozdenko spent several years working on missile defense and arms control issues, including representing the U.S. at the Senior Group on Proliferation at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Most recently, she served as acting executive director of Outrider Foundation. Drozdenko also co-founded Highly NRiched, an open-access platform helping educators incorporate lessons about nuclear weapons into their classroom.
The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation is a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan organization funded by foundations and contributions from individuals. There is no taxpayer, corporate, political, or lobbyist funding for this project.
February 25: Nuclear Weapons 201: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Nuclear Weapons (But Were Afraid to Ask)
WHEN: 12-1 p.m. ET
WHERE: S-115 (Capitol building — Senate side)
RSVP HERE
Lunch will be provided!
The nuclear weapons space can seem complicated, but it doesn’t have to be! Want to know more about the nuclear modernization process? Hypersonic weapons? The future of arms control? The Iranian or North Korean nuclear programs?
Join the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation for a briefing during which we will answer all of the questions that you may have about the nuclear weapons and non-proliferation space (but were afraid to ask). Submit your questions ahead of time via email and our experts will bring you up to date on everything you need to know so that you can sound like you know what you are talking about.
- Sharon Squassoni is a research professor at the Institute for International Science and Technology Policy, Elliott School of International Affairs, at The George Washington University. She has specialized in nuclear nonproliferation, arms control and security policy for three decades, serving in the US government at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the State Department, and the Congressional Research Service. Since 2007, she has directed research programs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. A political scientist by training, she holds degrees from the State University of New York at Albany, the University of Maryland, and the National War College. She sits on the boards of key organizations in the field, including the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, the Wisconsin Project on Arms Control, the PIR Center, and, previously, the Science & Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
- Mackenzie Knight- Boyle is a Senior Research Associate for the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, where she co-authors the Nuclear Notebook––an authoritative open-source estimate of global nuclear forces and trends. Prior to this position, Mackenzie worked at FAS as a Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellow. Mackenzie also serves as a Working Group Chair with BASIC’s Emerging Voices Network policy cycle, leading a team to publish a policy paper on Strengthening the Humanitarian Impact Agenda through Civil Society and the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). In 2023, she was a Youth Delegate to the 2nd Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in New York.
The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation is a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan organization funded by foundations and contributions from individuals. There is no taxpayer, corporate, political, or lobbyist funding for this project.
