Katie Gorka was director of The Feulner Institute’s Center for Civil Society and the American Dialogue at the Heritage Foundation from 2020 to 2022. In 2016, Katie joined the Trump Transition Team and then served as a senior advisor in the Office of Policy at the Department of Homeland Security from 2017 to 2019, where she focused on strategies for prevention of terrorism and targeted violence and combatting use of the internet for terrorism and human trafficking. From June to August 2019, she served as the press secretary for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
As President of the Threat Knowledge Group from 2014 to 2017, Katie provided expertise and training on irregular warfare and terrorism to the FBI, US Army Special Forces, Marine Corps, and law enforcement. From 2009 to 2014, was the Executive Director of the Westminster Institute, which conducted research and education on threats posed by extremist ideologies.
Katie was born in Boston and grew up in various places on the East Coast, from Franconia, New Hampshire, to Asheville, North Carolina. She earned her B.A. in Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her M.Sc. in Politics of the World Economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She lived in Budapest, Hungary for twelve years, where she worked on aspects of the post-communist transition, including projects to help rebuild civil society.