Lincoln University lecture series to feature former Trump national security advisor

FILE - This Feb. 1, 2017, file photo shows then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, joined by K.T. McFarland, then-deputy national security adviser, during the daily news briefing at the White House, in Washington.  McFarland is an unnamed senior official referred to in the court papers filed in the Flynn case. She was involved in a discussion with Flynn about what he would say to Russian government officials in response to U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia last year. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
FILE - This Feb. 1, 2017, file photo shows then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, joined by K.T. McFarland, then-deputy national security adviser, during the daily news briefing at the White House, in Washington. McFarland is an unnamed senior official referred to in the court papers filed in the Flynn case. She was involved in a discussion with Flynn about what he would say to Russian government officials in response to U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia last year. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

K.T. McFarland, who most recently served as deputy national security advisor to President Donald J. Trump, is scheduled to speak Thursday at Lincoln University.

McFarland is the November speaker for LU's "A Dream Fulfilled: The Presidential Lecture Series." Previous speakers in the series, which began in January, have included the president and chief executive officer of the NAACP, as well as the senior advisor for former Vice President Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign who also served as the national press secretary for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders in his 2016 presidential campaign.

McFarland will speak at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Scruggs University Center Ballroom. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and the event is free and open to the public.

McFarland has had "more than four decades of experience in global politics," including in appointed national security positions under the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations, according to a news release from LU.

Her work under President Ronald Reagan earned her the highest civilian honor from the Department of Defense, the Distinguished Service Award, in 1985.

She was a FOX News national security analyst for six years before joining the Trump administration.

McFarland had been picked by Trump to be the U.S. ambassador to Singapore, but she ultimately withdrew her nomination in 2018 after it had stalled in the Senate amid questions and concerns about her involvement with the administration's communications with Russian officials, according to media reports.

Former national security advisor Michael Flynn, whom McFarland served under, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia. Flynn then cooperated with the Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller. A federal judge in September this year set Flynn's sentencing for December.

Trump chalked McFarland's stalled nomination up to partisan politics.

She has since turned to writing and contributed to two books published this year - "Reagan at CPAC: The Words that Continue to Inspire a Revolution" and "Kissinger on Kissinger" - and a work scheduled for release in 2020, "America's Next Revolution: Trump, Washington and We the People."

In July 2017, McFarland told the Senate Committee on Foreign Relationsin in her statement on her nomination to be the ambassador to Singapore she had been endorsed for the position by Henry Kissinger, former national security advisor and secretary of state under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

McFarland holds degrees from George Washington University, Oxford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She concentrated in her doctoral program at MIT on nuclear weapons, China and the Soviet Union.