Laura Kupe is a multilingual attorney, national security professional, strategist, and diaspora leader with over 10 years of experience in national security and foreign policy across roles at the Department of Defense (DoD), U.S. House of Representatives, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the White House. Her policy experience ranges from the Arctic and transatlantic relations to the geopolitics of the African Great Lakes region.

Most recently, she served as a Senior Advisor to the former Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, providing strategic counsel on a range of matters including homeland defense and civil-military relations. During her time at DoD, she also held roles in the Pentagon’s Russia/Ukraine and homeland defense offices. Previously, Laura served as Counsel on the Committee on Homeland Security in the House of Representatives and as a policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. Laura is also a former Obama presidential appointee, having served as a Special Assistant in the DHS Office of Policy, working on European and Five Eyes matters, and as a Director in the White House Presidential Personnel Office. 

Born in Germany to Congolese parents and raised in Luxembourg and the U.S., she is a self-proclaimed “Afropean-American.” Laura also speaks German, French, and Luxembourgish. She has provided commentary on U.S. politics on German television outlets, including ARD and ZDF. Furthermore, she is a co-founder of Congolese Diaspora Impact Strategies, which has successfully hosted events and programming focused on the Congolese diaspora and the promotion of social impact, business, and entrepreneurship opportunities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since 2019. Laura has also been recognized as a next-generation leader by organizations, like The Root and the Munich Security Conference. She is a proud graduate of the University of Michigan and University of Michigan Law School.