Kiron Kanina Skinner (born 1961) is a former Director of Policy Planning at the United States Department of State in the Trump administration. Prior to that, she was the Taube Professor of International Relations and Politics at Carnegie Mellon University, and the founding director of the Institute for Politics and Strategy and associated centers at the university. She is also the W. Glenn Campbell Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution. After leaving the Department of State, she returned to her position at Carnegie Mellon University until stepping down in 2021.