Paula Dean Broadwell (née Kranz; born 9 November 1972)[1] is an American writer, academic and former military officer.

Broadwell served in the US Army on both active and reserve duty for over 20 years (including time as a military school undergraduate).

She attended Century High School, where she was homecoming queen, valedictorian of the class of 1991,[13] and an all-state basketball player.

[14] Broadwell graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering and political geography.

[19][20][21] Broadwell was a research associate in the Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership Fellows, a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Distinguished Young Leader in the French-America Foundation and American Council on Germany, and a national finalist in the White House Fellows[22] program.

[28] On 14 November 2012, Broadwell was stripped of her clearances to access classified information;[29] her promotion to lieutenant colonel was revoked and she was demoted back to major.

[34] The writer Joshua Foust challenged the accuracy of Broadwell's account of the US destruction of the Afghan village of Khosrow Sofla.

[36][37] Broadwell was deputy director of the Jebsen Center for Counter-Terrorism Studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

[4] Broadwell has also written for The New York Times, CNN Security Blog, and The Boston Globe, as well as publishing book chapters in edited volumes.

[43][44] The emails were prompted after Broadwell alleged that Kelley intimately fondled Petraeus under a table at a restaurant at the Georgetown Four Seasons.

[3][49] When the news of the scandal became public, Broadwell spent time secluded in Washington, D.C., (at the home of her brother, Stephen Kranz) away from her husband and family.