Palm Beach Atlantic University’s LeMieux Center for Public Policy Hosts PBA Alumna Michele Rigby Assad

On April 10, an audience of students, faculty, staff and community members welcomed former CIA agent and Palm Beach Atlantic University (PBA) alumna Michele Rigby Assad to the LeMieux Center's public policy presentation. Hosted by PBA, the event was held in Upper Weyenberg to seat a large audience of guests eager to hear Assad's conversation with Senator George LeMieux.

The LeMieux Center for Public Policy invites students and the general public to listen to thoughtful civil discourse about pressing public policy issues in Florida, the United States and the world. The audience is given the opportunity to learn from policy experts and global leaders from a variety of disciplines.

Michele Assad joined the CIA in January 2002 and spent the next decade serving as an undercover intelligence officer with a focus on counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and lie detection in the Middle East. She has completed a total of five overseas tours, one of which was a year-long warzone tour in Iraq. Now, Assad and her husband, Joseph Assad, run an international consulting firm for Western and non-native businesses in the Middle East, Asia and Europe. She published her first book, Breaking Cover: My Secret Life in the CIA and What it Taught Me about What's Worth Fighting For, in 2018 and recently published her second book, Get Off the X: CIA Secrets for Conquering Obstacles and Achieving Your Life's Mission in January 2025.

Assad said that it took her a while to discover her own mission, but during her four years at PBA, she found herself continuously called to the Middle East through outreach trips and a semester abroad. In hindsight, Assad recognizes those years as stepping stones to her role in the CIA and where she is today.

"What I didn't realize was that God was establishing my steps so that I could learn about the Middle East and the Arab world," Assad shared.

After graduating from PBA, Assad got her master's degree in Contemporary Arab Studies from Georgetown University. She and her husband, Joseph, were eventually hired by the CIA, where they spent years trying to collect reliable information from terrorists that U.S. policymakers and world leaders can use to fight terrorism. Together, Assad and her husband courageously tried to get terrorists to work with them and spent years sifting through misinformation to uncover information to protect the American people.

Near the end of the event, Assad answered questions from the audience. She offered her insight on the Middle East, touching on issues including Israel and Palestine, Iran, China and Qatar. She confessed that while the solution to Middle Eastern conflict is far from simple, there are ways to move forward productively. She also spoke candidly about how God has led her to a life of courage and risk, a theme she discusses in depth in her new book.

"When we are comfortable in our personal and professional lives, and when we don't know what to do with our lives, we just sit there, and we don't move. And it's the not moving that kills us over time," Assad said while describing her book. "If you're not a little bit scared by what you're doing, you're not trying hard enough."

On Tuesday, April 1, PBA hosted Elizabeth Neumann, a national security expert and violence prevention advocate. She served three Presidential Administrations across her career, and she is now national security contributor for ABC News and Chief Strategy Officer for Moonshot, a company focused on preventing violence. On Tuesday, April 29, PBA will host Wilbur L. Ross, Jr., former U.S. Secretary of Commerce. To learn more about the event or register to attend, click here.

PBA's LeMieux Center for Public Policy exists to address pressing public policy issues confronting both the United States and the world. One of the core values of the Center is to provide a space for reasoned, thoughtful, and civil discourse on topics that may be controversial or challenging. To learn more, click here.