Bess Dopkeen is beginning her seventh year in the Department of Defense, where she is a program analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense/Cost Assessment & Program Evaluation and co-chairs Truman’s DoD Expert Group. She works on the Department’s independent cost estimates of major acquisition programs, including the Secretary’s satellite efficiency initiative. Previously, she served as an acquisitions analyst for the Under Secretary of Defense/Acquisitions, Technology and Logistics, where she helped monitor and guide Army, Navy and Air Force programs through major reviews and the acquisition process. Prior to the Pentagon, Bess came to DC in 2004 as a Tufts University Dutko Fellow, where she worked at the Global Fairness Initiative on trade and international development projects. Bess received a B.A. in Political Science from Tufts.

Bess coordinates the Tufts Active Citizenship Summers fellowship program for selected Tufts students interested in DC-based public service opportunities. She directs the DC arm of the Tisch School of Citizenship and Public Service's Connecting Alumni and Student Experiences alumni mentorship and seminar program.  Bess is coaching girls’ high school rowing for the fourth year, and just finished her fourteenth year of competitive women’s crew.