[4] In July 2014 she was nominated by President Obama to become the 18th United States deputy secretary of energy and, following Senate confirmation in September 2014, she served in that role from October 2014 until January 20, 2017.
Her paternal grandparents met at the public library in Anaconda, Montana, and married and moved westward, eventually settling in Los Angeles, California, where her father, Richard E. Sherwood, was born in 1929.
In 2004, she was selected to become a Carnegie Scholar and used the prize to support research as an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she developed recommendations to strengthen the Transatlantic alliance to meet the challenges of the new century.
[19] During the first term of Barack Obama, Sherwood-Randall served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs on the White House National Security Council.
[20] She focused on revitalizing America's unique network of alliance relationships and strengthening cooperation with 49 countries and three international institutions in Europe (NATO, the EU, and the OSCE) to advance U.S. global interests.
At the Department of Energy she launched a major initiative in partnership with leaders of the American electricity, oil and gas sectors to tackle emerging cyber and physical challenges to the power grid.
[27] As the Homeland Security Advisor, Sherwood-Randall coordinated Federal support to State and local leaders, NGOs, and the private sector to prevent, prepare for and respond effectively to disasters, whether natural or manmade.
[32] In the Biden Administration, Sherwood-Randall led the reform of counterterrorism policies to align with evolving threats, including by spearheading the development of the first national domestic terrorism strategy.
[34] Later in the same year, Sherwood-Randall stated in remarks to the Atlantic Council that the Biden administration was seeking to keep pace with evolving global terrorist threats, setting priorities and matching resources to challenges, and adapting approaches using the full range of tools available to the nation.
[35] As part of this effort, Sherwood-Randall led interagency delegations to Africa, Europe and the Middle East to advance the Administration's counterterrorism policies through close coordination with allies and partners.
With this National Action Plan, we reaffirm our commitment to preventing and punishing human trafficking in all its forms and to addressing the social and economic conditions that can create greater vulnerabilities for marginalized groups.”[40] When it became apparent that the Government of Afghanistan would fall in 2021, Sherwood-Randall was among the senior White House officials deliberating about how to manage a noncombatant evacuation operation from Kabul.
[41] According to a leaked Summary of Conclusions document, she chaired a National Security Council Deputies Small Group that set priorities for evacuation of U.S. staff and citizens and Afghan partners and metrics for measuring success.
[43] Sherwood-Randall led efforts to stem the proliferation of new technologies that could negatively impact homeland security, including through the development of an ambitious counter-unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) strategy.
[46] As White House Homeland Security Advisor, she co-led a process with then-Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice to generate the first-ever National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism in May 2023.
[49] [50] As an extension of her scholarly work and previous Obama administration responsibilities, Sherwood-Randall led a US delegation that participated in trilateral nuclear threat reduction meetings with the United Kingdom and France.
These meetings covered ongoing cooperation to prevent the proliferation of nuclear materials to non-state actors and to advance collaborative capabilities to counter the threat of weapons of mass destruction terrorism worldwide.