About me
Lisa Curtis is Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. She is a foreign policy and national security expert with over 20 years of service in the U.S. government. Her work has centered on U.S. policy toward the Indo-Pacific, particularly South Asia. From 2017 to 2021, Curtis served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for South and Central Asia at the NSC. During her tenure at the NSC, she coordinated U.S. policy development and implementation of the South Asia Strategy signed by President Trump in August 2017 and the U.S. Strategy for Central Asia 2019-2025, which was published by the State Department in January 2020. She also contributed to the Indo-Pacific Strategic Framework and coordinated policies designed to strengthen the U.S.-India partnership, resulting in a widely recognized elevation of the relationship. Curtis received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service in December 2020 in recognition of her work at the NSC.
From 2006 to 2017, Curtis was Senior Fellow on South Asia at The Heritage Foundation, where she appeared regularly in the media and provided frequent Congressional testimony. She also served as Professional Staff Member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (2003 to 2006), Senior Advisor in the South Asia Bureau at the State Department (2001 to 2003), senior analyst on South Asia at the CIA (1996 to 2001), and as a diplomat at the U.S. Embassies in Pakistan and India (1994 to 1997).
Curtis has published commentary in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, CNN.com, NPR.org, and other media outlets and has made multiple appearances on CNN, Fox News, BBC, PBS, MSNBC, and C-SPAN. She is currently Board Chair of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Board Member of Women for Afghanistan, Member of the Leadership Council of Women in National Security (LCWINS), and a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
