The Winding Journey Of Avril Haines, Biden's Pick To Lead U.S. Intelligence
Avril Haines, the first women nominated to the top intelligence post, took a strange path to this job. She studied judo in Japan, physics in college, and rebuilt a plane that she later crash landed.
For someone poised to become the ultimate insider as the director of national intelligence, Avril Haines spent her formative years more as a hispter and an outsider.
An only child raised on the West Side of New York, she spent her teenage years helping care for her ailing mother, who died when Haines was 15. As soon as she finished high school, Haines set out on a series of adventures. She began with a stint at an elite judo academy in Japan,
