Bryan Bender, Vice President for Communications Strategy, is an experienced journalist and communicator with an extensive network in the national security and foreign policy communities, think tanks, trade associations, and the private sector.
Prior to joining SMI, Bryan served as the Washington Bureau Chief for Jane's Defense Weekly and as an award-winning Pentagon correspondent for the Boston Globe, covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and global military operations. Most recently, he was a senior national correspondent for POLITICO and defense editor of POLITICO Pro, focusing on NASA, the Space Force, and the commercial space industry. Bryan brings over two decades of experience covering the defense budget, government acquisition, climate security, nuclear arms control, and the aerospace, shipbuilding, and tech industries.
Bryan has also taught journalism and public relations at The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University and is the author of You Are Not Forgotten.
A native of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, he earned a B.A. in English Writing and Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh and studied Middle East Politics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.