Kathryn H. Floyd

About Kathryn

Kathryn H. Floyd, Ph.D., is Director of William & Mary’s Whole of Government Center of Excellence (WGC), where she provides executive leadership for the university's national security strategy, institutional partnerships, and program portfolio. She aligns university expertise with government and defense priorities, overseeing strategic leader development, interagency training, research collaboration, and educational initiatives. Her responsibilities encompass strategic planning, resource development, and cross-university coordination, translating complex partner needs into programs that advance institutional priorities and public service.

Floyd’s expertise spans national security, crisis management, and collaboration across government, academia, and international institutions. She authored the definitive “Whole-of-Government Crisis Management: From Research to Practice” for Oxford University Press’s Encyclopedia of Crisis Analysis, connecting scholarship with practical approaches to coordinated government action. Her work combines research, policy engagement, and program leadership to strengthen institutional capacity and address complex security challenges. Floyd has taught courses in William & Mary’s Department of Government on international politics, international security, insurgency and terrorism, conflict in continental Africa, and approaches to U.S. national security, and led Cambridge study abroad programming focused on British politics, war, and strategic studies.

Previously, Floyd served as the U.S. Department of Justice’s Mass Violence and Terrorism Visiting Fellow, advancing preparedness, response, and recovery with federal, state, tribal, and local partners. She helped develop victim-centered provisions of NFPA 3000, the national standard for active shooter and hostile event response programs, and supported interagency collaboration to improve assistance for communities affected by mass violence.

At the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Floyd directed global media communications and supported high-level international security summits, including the Shangri-La and Manama Dialogues. She managed relationships with senior government, corporate, and academic representatives across more than three dozen countries and hundreds of media organizations. General David Petraeus recognized her research support to Multi-National Force–Iraq under then-Colonel H. R. McMaster with a Certificate of Appreciation.

Floyd holds a Ph.D. in strategic studies from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, an M.A. in war studies from King’s College London, and a B.A. in government from William & Mary.