[1][2] Wallander received her BA summa cum laude in political science from Northwestern University in 1983.

[3] Wallander was previously a professor of government at Harvard University (1989–2000), senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (2000–2001), director and senior fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (2001–2006), and visiting professor at Georgetown University (2006–2008).

Wallander founded the Program on New Approaches to Russian Security and the Eurasian Strategy Project.

Wallander was special assistant to the president and senior director for Russia and Eurasia on the National Security Council from 2013 to 2017.

[5] On June 22, 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Wallander to be assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.