Col. Kathleen Turner is a public affairs officer in the United States Army. She is currently assigned as the Director of Public Affairs, U.S. Army Europe. Previously she served as a War College Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace studying women who join violent extremist groups.

Prior to that assignment she was the Public Affairs Advisor to the 38th Chief of Staff of the Army, Gen. Ray Odierno, where she developed and managed his communications with internal and external media. Before working for the Chief of Staff, she was a planner in the Integration Division, Army Public Affairs, for the Office of the Chief of Public Affairs on the Army Staff.

Additional assignments include: I Corps Headquarters, Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington, where she served as the Public Affairs Chief, the Public Affairs Planner, and the Deputy Public Affairs Officer. While serving with the I Corps, she deployed to Iraq for 12-months as the Corps Public Affairs Plans Chief for Multi-National Corps Iraq. Her other public affairs assignments include the Public Affairs Officer and Secretary of the General Staff for the Command & General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. She began her public affairs career while serving at the 25^th Infantry Division Headquarters as the media relations chief and rear-detachment public affairs officer while the 25th Infantry Division was deployed to Afghanistan.

Prior to her career in public affairs, Col. Turner served in a variety of positions in the United States and overseas. She served as a platoon leader for the 511th Military Police Company and as the Assistant S-3 for the 10th Military Police Battalion, Fort Drum, New York. While assigned to the 25th Infantry Division in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, she served as the Deputy Provost Marshal and as the Company Commander for the 58th Military Police Company.

Col. Turner is a graduate of the Military Police Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, the Public Affairs Officer Course, the Army Combined Arms & Services Staff School (CAS3), resident Intermediate Level Education (ILE) at the Command and General Staff College (CGSC), the School for Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) and the Army War College. Col. Turner is a graduate of Western New England College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business, a Master’s of Science Administration degree from Central Michigan University and a Masters of Military Arts and Sciences from the Command and General Staff College. Col. Turner also participated in the MIT Seminar XXI Fellowship program focusing on national security and foreign policy issues.