Dr. Kabrena Rodda, Col, USAF (ret) is a research line manager and Air Force/Space Force subsector manager for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s National Security Directorate.
Prior to these appointments, she served the laboratory as a Strategic Advisor, providing strategic direction on research to improve U.S. capabilities against chemical threats.
She is a retired U.S. Air Force (USAF) Colonel. During her 22-year USAF career, she managed a nonproliferation program and later advised on chemical issues at the National Counterproliferation Center.
Dr. Rodda was a United Nations Special Commission inspector and laboratory chief in Iraq in 1995 and 1998 and provided consequence management advice for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
In 2012, she published a book-length policy paper against synthetic drugs titled Legal Highs: US Policy for the New Pandemic. In 2017 and 2018, she led chemical threat response workshops at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and headed the writing team for the American Chemical Society (ACS) policy statement, “Preventing the Reemergence of Chemical Weapons.”
From 2021 to 2024, she served as a committee member for the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) consensus study, “Assessing and Improving Strategies for Preventing, Countering, and Responding to Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism: Chemical Threats.”
Dr. Rodda is a recipient of the OPCW Director General’s Medal, the Secretary of Energy Appreciation Award, and the Secretary of the USAF Research and Development Award.
She is a subcommittee chair for ACS’ International Activities Committee (IAC) and an ACS Expert, a member of the American Academy of Forensic Science, a committee member on AAFS’ Vicarious Trauma Ad Hoc, and an active participant in the International Society for the Study of Emerging Drugs.
She holds a Ph.D. in forensic toxicology; three M.S. degrees in chemistry, project and systems management, and national security studies; and a B.S. in chemistry.