Avery Alpha

Avery Alpha is the Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security. The Office of Intelligence and Analysis is a member of, and the Department’s liaison to, the U.S. Intelligence Community. It is responsible for providing DHS senior leadership and components, and state, local, tribal, territorial, and private sector partners with the homeland security intelligence and information needed to keep the country safe, secure, and resilient.

Ms. Alpha is a career intelligence officer, and prior to DHS, she spent most of her twenty years in national security at the Central Intelligence Agency. There, she served as a senior manager in the Counterterrorism Mission Center, where she oversaw several branches focused on writing the President’s Daily Brief and strategic assessments for policymakers and providing analytic support to intelligence operations.

From 2015 to 2017, Ms. Alpha worked at the National Security Council (NSC) as the Senior Policy Advisor and Chief of Staff to the President’s top aide for counterterrorism (CT), homeland security, and cybersecurity policy. In 2014, she joined the NSC as Director for Counterterrorism and helped coordinate, implement, and advance the President’s CT policy priorities, focusing on the Middle East, Europe, and foreign fighters.

Prior to that, Ms. Alpha was a foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State and worked on counterterrorism issues at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, during and in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution. She began her career in the Studies Department of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Ms. Alpha holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Columbia University and a Master of Science in National Security and Resource Strategy from the Dwight D. Eisenhower School at the National Defense University, where she was a distinguished graduate. She is proficient in Egyptian dialect and Modern Standard Arabic.