The former White House aide recently returned to her roots, advising Britain on defense and taking a role at Durham University in northeastern England. She still has her eye on global threats.
Fiona Hill holds out her hand with a pre-emptive wince. She’s shaken so many hands over the past week, congratulating graduates of Durham University, that her own is hurting. It’s an occupational hazard of being the university’s chancellor, a post she has held since 2023, but it’s one she bears cheerfully.
Presiding over Durham’s graduation exercises earlier this month held deep meaning for Ms. Hill. She grew up in Bishop Auckland, a down-at-the-heels former coal-mining town, 11 miles from Durham. Education, initially at St. Andrews University in Scotland, was her ticket out, the first step on a journey that began in 1984 when her father, a miner turned hospital porter, warned his ambitious daughter, “There’s nothing here for you, pet.”
