COL Heidi B. Demarest, Ph.D.

COL Heidi Demarest is the head of the Department of Social Sciences (SOSH) and an associate professor of American politics at the United States Military Academy (USMA). She is a 2001 USMA graduate and completed her Ph.D. in political science at Harvard University in 2011. 

She served as the deputy head of SOSH for five years, director of the American Politics program from 2015-19, and as USMA liaison officer to the Department of the Army in the Pentagon in 2018-19. She was the deputy brigade commander of the Army’s offensive cyber brigade at Fort Meade, Maryland, from 2013-15. 

COL Demarest also served as military assistant to the Combined Joint Task Force political advisor in Afghanistan and commanded a company of soldiers responsible for emplacing and maintaining the National Security Agency’s classified communications networks. 

She pursues research interests in defense budgeting, defense acquisition practices, bureaucratic politics, and the interaction between the Army and Congress.