Samantha Vinograd

Samantha Vinograd
Born	(1983-02-17) February 17, 1983 Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Government official, foreign policy expert, commentator
Years active	2000s–present
Known for	Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism, Threat Prevention, and Law Enforcement Policy at the Department of Homeland Security (2021–2023)

Samantha Erin Vinograd (born February 17, 1983) is a former U.S. government official and expert commentator on foreign policy. Between July 2021 and December 2023, she held the position of Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism, Threat Prevention, and Law Enforcement Policy within the Department of Homeland Security.

Early life and education

Raised in Connecticut in a Jewish household, Vinograd's father is a Holocaust survivor originally from France. She completed her secondary education at the Hopkins School in New Haven, Connecticut in 2001.

Vinograd obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Asian and Middle Eastern studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005. She later pursued graduate studies at Georgetown University, earning a Master of Arts in security studies.

Career

Following her academic training, Vinograd began her career at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where she served as deputy attaché to Iraq and worked as an International Economist during the George W. Bush administration.

In August 2009, during the Obama administration, she joined the National Security Council as director for Iraq affairs, director for international economics, and senior advisor to National Security Advisor Thomas E. Donilon.

Vinograd moved to the private sector in 2013 by joining Goldman Sachs, concentrating on partnerships between public and private sectors. Subsequently, she led global public policy initiatives at Stripe before becoming a national security analyst for CNN. Additionally, she held a Senior Advisor role at the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware.

Her advisory roles include work with the US Fund for UNICEF. She has been recognized as a David E. Rockefeller Fellow at the Trilateral Commission, a Millennium Fellow at the Atlantic Council, and serves on the board of the Women's Foreign Policy Group. Vinograd co-founded Global Opportunity Advisors, a geopolitical risk and policy consultancy, alongside Morgan Ortagus.

Biden Administration

In February 2021, Vinograd joined the Biden administration as senior counselor for national security and acting assistant secretary for counterterrorism and threat prevention at DHS. She was elevated to assistant secretary for counterterrorism and threat prevention in July 2021.

She departed from DHS in December 2023 and shortly thereafter became part of the Brunswick Group.

External links

• "Presidential Weekly Briefing" Samantha Vinograd’s weekly column on CNN.