Most recently, she served as the Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism, Threat Prevention, and Law Enforcement Policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security where she developed, implemented and evaluated policies to identify and mitigate risks to the U.S. Prior to joining the Biden Administration, Samantha led global public policy at Stripe and worked for Goldman Sachs where she focused on building public-private sector partnerships. Samantha began her career in Baghdad under President Bush working for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and she subsequently served on President Obama’s National Security Council as the Director for Iraq, Director for International Economics and Energy and as the Senior Advisor to the National Security Advisor. She is a CBS News contributor, a Senior Advisor at the Biden Institute, and a Trustee at Save the Children US.
She is fluent in French and studied advanced Arabic and Hebrew. She received her BA in Asian and Middle Eastern studies from the University of Pennsylvania and her MA in security studies from Georgetown University.