Rachel Brandenburg

Rachel Brandenburg is the Washington Managing Director and Senior Fellow at the Israel Policy Forum. Prior to joining Israel Policy Forum, Rachel was vice president at The Cohen Group, where she worked with clients across multiple industries and markets. She brings over a decade of national security and foreign policy experience from roles at the State Department, the Department of Defense, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the think tank community. Previously, Rachel served as national security advisor to then-U.S. Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. During Rachel’s tenure in the U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Secretary of Defense for Middle East policy, she served as director of the Iraq and counter-ISIS coalition team and director of the Levant team. Rachel also worked at the U.S. Institute of Peace as a senior program officer in the Middle East and Africa Center, and at the State Department in the Middle East Partnership Initiative office and the Office of Middle East Transitions.

Rachel was the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship in Israel and a Critical Language Scholarship in Jordan. She holds a Master of Science in foreign service degree from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, and a Bachelor’s degree from Tufts University.