Rachel Brandenburg

Rachel Brandenburg joined The Cohen Group after over a decade of national security and foreign policy work at the State Department, the Department of Defense, in the US House of Representatives, and in the think tank community.

Prior to joining The Cohen Group, Ms. Brandenburg served as Senior Policy Advisor to Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, and was responsible for legislative and policy work related to the House Armed Services Committee, national security and defense, foreign policy, election security, and other topics. Before serving on Capitol Hill, Ms. Brandenburg worked at the Atlantic Council as the Director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security Middle East Security Initiative. From 2014 to 2018, Ms. Brandenburg served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Middle East policy, where she initially focused on Iraq and the counter-ISIS campaign as director of the Iraq team, and then on bilateral defense relationships with Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan as director of the Levant team.

Prior to joining the Department of Defense, Ms. Brandenburg worked at the US Institute of Peace, where she managed programs related to Syria, Libya, Iraq, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She has also served at the State Department, in the Office of Middle East Transitions where she was responsible for coordinating US government assistance to Tunisia in 2011, and in the Middle East Partnerships Initiative Office.

Ms. Brandenburg was the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship in Israel, and is a Fellow with the Truman National Security Project. She holds a Master’s degree from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, and a Bachelor’s degree from Tufts University.