JASON WHITELEY was born and raised in Lumberton, Texas, a small community near the Gulf Coast. After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1999, he served as an officer in the 1st Battalion, 8th U.S. Cavalry in the 1st Cavalry Division, from 1999 to 2005, including a six-month tour as a staff officer in Honduras as part of Joint Task Force Bravo.
From 2004 to 2005, he served in Baghdad as a governance officer in the Al Dora District of Southern Baghdad. In 2005 Captain Whiteley was featured in the PBS Frontline documentary A Company of Soldiers. He left the army in 2005 to pursue a law degree and a master of science in foreign service at Georgetown University, both of which he received in 2009. Whiteley has been quoted in numerous newspapers on the subject of building governance capacity in Iraq. He lives in Washington, D.C., where he practices law.