Avril Haines Bio
Avril Danica Haines (born August 27, 1969) is an American lawyer and government official who served as the Director of National Intelligence in the Biden administration. She is the first woman to hold that position in United States history. A member of the Democratic Party, Haines previously served in the Obama administration as Deputy National Security Advisor and as Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Trained as an attorney, Haines has held senior national security legal roles in the White House and the Department of State. After her early government service she worked in academia and the private sector before returning to lead the U.S. intelligence community, with a focus on interagency coordination, emerging threats, and international intelligence partnerships.
Early Life and Background
Avril Danica Haines was born in New York City on August 27, 1969, and grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Her mother, Adrian Rappin, was a painter of Jewish background, and her father, Thomas H. Haines, was a biochemist who earned his PhD from Rutgers University and helped establish the CUNY School of Medicine, where he chaired the biochemistry department.
When Haines was 10 years old, her mother developed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and contracted avian tuberculosis. Haines and her father cared for Adrian in a home intensive care unit until her death when Haines was 15. After graduating from Hunter College High School, Haines moved to Japan for a year and enrolled at the Kodokan, an elite judo institute in Tokyo.
In 1988, Haines enrolled at the University of Chicago, where she studied physics and worked at an automobile repair shop in Hyde Park. She graduated with an AB in physics in 1992, later moving to Baltimore to begin doctoral studies in physics at Johns Hopkins University. She soon left the program and, with her future husband, opened a bookstore and café in Fell’s Point named Adrian’s Book Cafe in honor of her late mother.
Path to US Politics
Haines enrolled at the Georgetown University Law Center in 1998 and earned her J.D. in 2001, beginning her formal path toward a career in national security law. Her first government role came in 2001 as a legal officer at the Hague Conference on Private International Law. She then clerked for Judge Danny Julian Boggs on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in 2002.
From 2003 to 2006, Haines worked in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the Department of State, focusing first on treaty affairs and then on political-military affairs. She then served from 2007 to 2008 as Deputy Chief Counsel for the Majority on the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, working under then-Chairman Joe Biden.
In 2008, Haines joined the State Department as assistant legal adviser for treaty affairs, where she served until 2010. That year she moved to the White House Counsel’s office as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President for National Security Affairs, deepening her influence on executive-branch national security policy.
Avril Haines Career
Early Career (2010-2013)
During her early years in the Obama administration, Haines served as Deputy Counsel to the President for National Security Affairs at the White House. She worked closely with senior national security officials on a wide range of legal and policy questions, including counterterrorism operations, arms control, and the use of force.
On April 18, 2013, President Barack Obama nominated Haines to serve as Legal Adviser of the Department of State. The nomination was withdrawn in June 2013 so that she could instead be named Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, replacing Michael Morell. She took office on August 9, 2013, becoming the first woman to hold the position of deputy director of the CIA.
Breakthrough (2013-2017)
As Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2013 to 2015, Haines helped oversee day-to-day operations of the agency during a turbulent period in U.S. counterterrorism policy. In 2015, she was tasked with determining whether CIA personnel should be disciplined for hacking the computers of Senate staffers working on the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture. Haines chose not to discipline them, overruling the CIA Inspector General, a decision that drew significant criticism from transparency advocates.
Following her CIA service, Haines was tapped as Deputy National Security Advisor, becoming the first woman to hold that position. She worked closely with John Brennan on administration policy regarding extrajudicial targeted killings by drones. According to published reports, she was sometimes called in the middle of the night to evaluate whether a suspected terrorist could lawfully be targeted by a drone strike, and she was instrumental in establishing the legal framework and policy guidelines that governed the program.
After leaving the White House, Haines was appointed to multiple posts at Columbia University, where she served as a senior research scholar and deputy director of Columbia World Projects. She was designated the program’s director in May 2020. She also served as a fellow at the Human Rights Institute and the National Security Law Program at Columbia Law School, as a commissioner on the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service, and as a Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
Democratic Party Era (2017-2025)
On November 23, 2020, President-elect Joe Biden announced his nomination of Haines for the position of Director of National Intelligence, making her the first woman ever tapped to lead the U.S. intelligence community. During her Senate confirmation hearing on January 19, 2021, Haines addressed questions on China policy, the January 6 storming of the Capitol, and the treatment of torture in intelligence gathering, pledging transparency and interagency cooperation.
On January 20, 2021, the Senate confirmed Haines by an 84-10 vote, making her the first nominee of the Biden administration to be confirmed. She was sworn in the following day by Vice President Kamala Harris. As DNI, she emphasized coordination across the eighteen elements of the intelligence community, regular engagement with congressional oversight committees, and attention to emerging issues such as biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and foreign influence operations.
In May 2022, Haines publicly warned against efforts by Russia and China to make inroads with U.S. partners around the world, naming Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as examples. Her tenure as DNI ran through the Biden administration, and she was recognized internationally for her contributions to intelligence cooperation and global security partnerships.
Notable Events and Milestones
Among the defining moments of Haines’s career were her Senate confirmation by an 84-10 vote, her role overseeing the release of a redacted version of the Senate torture report, and her position as the first woman ever confirmed to lead the CIA as deputy director and later the intelligence community as Director of National Intelligence. Her confirmation also marked the first successful Senate vote of the Biden administration.
Avril Haines Career Awards
Avril Danica Haines has received formal recognition from multiple international partners for her contributions to intelligence cooperation and global security. Her awards reflect the close working relationships she built with allied intelligence services during her tenure as Director of National Intelligence.
International Recognition
In 2024, Haines was awarded the Australian Intelligence Medal as part of the King’s Birthday Honours by the Australian Government, in recognition of her distinguished service to the National Intelligence Community. Later that year, in November 2024, she received the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s Women for Peace and Security Award, honoring her leadership and commitment to international security.
Other Awards and Achievements
Throughout her career, Haines earned recognition as a trailblazer for women in the U.S. national security establishment, becoming the first woman to serve as Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the first woman to serve as Deputy National Security Advisor, and the first woman to serve as Director of National Intelligence.
Avril Haines Family
Family Background
Avril Danica Haines was raised in a household shaped by science, art, and public service. Her father, Thomas H. Haines, was a biochemist who earned his PhD from Rutgers University and helped in the formation of the CUNY School of Medicine, where he chaired the biochemistry department. Her mother, Adrian Rappin, was a painter of Jewish background, and her parents’ influence is visible in Haines’s lifelong blend of analytical training and artistic appreciation.
Personal Life
Haines met her future husband, David Davighi, while taking flying lessons at Princeton Airport outside Rocky Hill, New Jersey, in 1991. The couple later moved to Baltimore together, where they converted a bar that had been seized in a drug raid into Adrian’s Book Cafe, an independent bookstore and café named in honor of Haines’s late mother. Haines has been married to David Davighi, and together they have supported her rapid rise through senior legal and intelligence posts in the United States government.