Kristie Canegallo

Kristie Canegallo
Born	1979 Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation	Government official
Years active	2005–present
Known for	Acting deputy secretary of homeland security (2023–2025), White House deputy chief of staff (2014–2017)

Kristie Canegallo (born 1979) is a former U.S. government official who held the position of acting deputy secretary of homeland security from July 2023 until January 2025. She became part of the Department of Homeland Security in January 2022 as chief of staff and previously served as a White House deputy chief of staff responsible for policy implementation between 2014 and 2017.

Career

Born in 1979, Canegallo was raised in Springfield, Massachusetts by her mother, a single parent and schoolteacher. She graduated with a B.A. from Colgate University in 2001 and spent three years working at Goldman Sachs on Wall Street. In 2004, she earned an M.A. in strategic studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Affiliated with the Democratic Party, Canegallo launched her public service career through an unpaid internship at the United States Department of Defense in 2005. Her early roles included a brief assignment at the Embassy of the United States, Kabul in 2007 and collaboration with a United States Marine Corps unit addressing governance challenges during the Anbar campaign in Iraq in 2008.

In October 2008, she joined the National Security Council under the Bush administration, where she served as director for defense policy and senior advisor to Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough until 2012. Between 2014 and 2017, she acted as assistant to the president and White House deputy chief of staff, managing the implementation of significant policies such as the Affordable Care Act, health care reform, immigration initiatives, and cybersecurity efforts.

From 2018 through 2021, Canegallo was vice president for trust and safety at Google, overseeing international teams tasked with formulating and enforcing product policies to ensure user protection across Google's services.

She assumed the role of chief of staff at the United States Department of Homeland Security in January 2022, concentrating on migration strategy and asylum processes along the Mexico–United States border, as well as supervising Title 42 expulsion operations. In June 2023, it was announced that she would step into the role of acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security following John Tien’s retirement effective July 21.

References

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