Dr. Selma Gomez Orr is an Assistant Wargaming Fellow at the National Defense University’s Center for Applied Strategic Learning (NDU-CASL). Prior to joining CASL in September 2022, she worked in a variety of positions in both the public and private sectors, as well as academia. Within government, she served as a White House Fellow in the Office of the Under Secretary for Management in the U.S. Department of State and went on to serve as a foreign affairs officer.
As a management consultant, Dr. Orr specialized in operations consulting for large service firms, both as an independent consultant and as a Senior Manager at KPMG. She has also taught quantitative methods in undergraduate and graduate school programs, notably at The American University of Rome and at ISEG Business School in Paris, France. Her teaching, for which she received top reviews, focused on case-based experiential learning.
Most recently, Dr. Orr applied her quantitative skills in the development of data analytics at a cybersecurity start-up firm and was named a U.S. CyberCorps Scholar, receiving a scholarship to further her cybersecurity studies.
Dr. Orr received her doctorate in Decision Sciences from Harvard University. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Applied Mathematics at Harvard College and a Master’s in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.
The daughter of Cuban refugees, she is married to David W. Orr, a retired Foreign Service Officer and Special Agent with the U.S. Department of State. Together they are proud parents of Camila and William.