Whitney Kassel

Guest Author

Whitney Kassel (@whitneykassel) is a Vice President and Deputy Cyber Event Manager at Morgan Stanley, where she helps lead responses to cyber threats, vulnerabilities, and incidents that threaten the Firm. She served in the Department of Defense from 2008-2012, where she focused on Pakistan, Special Operations, and Counterterrorism policy. In 2009, she served on General Stanley McChrystal’s Strategic Assessment Team in Afghanistan, and from 2009-2010, she worked in Pakistan with the Office of the Defense Representative and Special Operations Command Forward. She has also worked at Palantir, the Arkin Group, and the Council on Foreign Relations. From 2014-2017, she wrote a regular column for Foreign Policy and has written for Foreign Affairs, Defense One, the Atlantic, Small Wars Journal, and others. She is the recipient of the Department of Defense Joint Meritorious Civilian Service Award, the Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence, and the Secretary of Defense Medal for the Global War on Terror. She was a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations and a 2011 Center for New American Security National Security Leader.