Kenneth A . Myers III Kenneth A . Myers III is the fourth and current director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency ( DTRA ) . DTRA is the intellectual , technical and operational leader for the Department of Defense ( DoD ) and the U . S . Strategic Command ( USSTRATCOM ) in the national effort to combat the weapons of mass destruction ( WMD ) threat . Myers is also dual - hatted as the director of the USSTRATCOM Center for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction . The center integrates and synchronizes DoD - wide efforts in support of the combating WMD mission . Professional career . Starting in 1994 , Myers was a senior associate at the law firm of Robinson Lake Sawyer Miller in Washington , D . C . He specialized in U . S . public and private sector investments to states of the former Soviet Union and was responsible for establishing the firm ' s office in Kiev , Ukraine . Following his time in Kiev , Myers accepted a position in the office of U . S . Senator Richard Lugar , where he served as a legislative assistant for National Security and Foreign Affairs . He assisted the senator in his role as a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence , the Senate ' s National Security Working Group and Russia Working Group . He joined the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations as a Senior Professional Staff Member in 2003 when Lugar became Chairman of the Committee . He served as the senior advisor to Lugar on European , former Soviet Union and Central Asian affairs . Myers worked extensively on issues of nonproliferation , counter - proliferation , arms control , and arms sales . He played a vital role in the development of the Nunn - Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program and the Lugar - Obama Cooperative Proliferation Detection , Interdiction Assistance , and Conventional Threat Reduction Act of 2006 . Myers frequently traveled throughout Europe , Central Asia and Russia with Lugar , members of the U . S . Senate Committee on Foreign Relations , and then - Senator Barack Obama to champion the causes of the Nunn - Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program . Additionally , Myers played a leading role in numerous critical foreign policy debates as Senator Richard Lugar ' s point person on the enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO ) , the Moscow Treaty ( the Treaty Between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Strategic Offensive Reductions , or SORT ) , and the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty ( START ) , U . S . nonproliferation and counter - proliferation policies , export controls and the U . S . - India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act . Selected for DTRA . Myers was selected as the director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency in the summer or 2009 , was sworn in July 27 , 2009 , at The Pentagon , and had an official Assumption of Responsibility Ceremony on September 1 , 2009 , at DTRA ' s headquarters on Fort Belvoir , Virginia . He leads an organization with approximately 2 , 000 civilian and military personnel at more than 14 locations around the world , including Russia , Kazakhstan , Azerbaijan , Uzbekistan , Georgia , and Ukraine . Education . Myers has a Bachelors degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University ; he earned a Master of International Security degree from the Catholic University of America , where he concentrated on the break - up of the former Soviet Union .