Emily Horne

Emily Horne is a communications and national security strategist who has served in senior U.S. government, tech, and academic roles for over 15 years. She is the founder of Allegro Public Affairs LLC, a boutique strategic communications, public affairs, and public relations firm in Washington DC.

Emily served as the first Special Assistant to the President, Spokesperson, and Senior Director for Press at the National Security Council (NSC) in the Biden Administration, where she led White House and interagency communications strategies and media engagement on all foreign policy and national security issues. Emily joined the NSC from the Biden-Harris transition team, where she led communications for the successful confirmations for Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

Emily was previously Vice President of Communications at the Brookings Institution, where she also oversaw the Brookings Press. Emily joined Brookings from Twitter, where she led global policy communications.

Emily spent nearly a decade as a career civil servant at the State Department, where she held a variety of roles including communications director for the Obama Administration’s counter-ISIS efforts and spokesperson for South and Central Asian Affairs. She has been an adjunct professor of media and foreign policy at American University and is a frequent public speaker on media and politics, disinformation, social media and emerging technology, and national security issues.