Adnan Kifayat is cochair of the Homeland Security Advisory Council's CVE working group and head of Global Security Ventures for the Gen Next Foundation. Over the last 16 years, he has held senior positions at the White House, State Department, and Treasury Department, as well as overseas at diplomatic missions in Jerusalem and Tunis. He served as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s Acting Special Representative to Muslim communities, creating programs to broaden and deepen U.S. engagement with leaders in Muslim communities worldwide based on shared commitments to global security.
As as senior advisor to the under secretary of state for Public Diplomacy, he led initiatives to counter the spread of violent extremism and established the Global Strategic Engagement Center (GSEC). He served as alternate executive director of the African Development Bank, and twice on the National Security Council staff, coordinating counterterrorism and economic policies in the Middle East and Africa. He is an advisor to the Center for Sanctions and Illicit Finance (CSIF) at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, an advisory member of Harvard University’s Project on Countering Extremism and Online Hate, and a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, advising on strategies to develop the next generation of transatlantic leaders..
