Susan Braden

Senior Policy Advisor, Office of Global Women's Issues, State Department

Susan Braden is a senior policy advisor in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Global Women’s Issues. She has over 20 years of experience working for the U.S. government, the NGO community and the private sector on U.S. security issues, the Middle East, Latin America and Europe.

Before joining the consulting world, Ms. Braden served as Vice President for Analysis at Intellibridge Corporation, where she managed the organization’s analytical team in providing expert analysis on global political, economic and security issues to government and corporate clients.

Ms. Braden was Director of Central and Eastern Europe in the National Security Council from 1999 to 2001. Her responsibilities included facilitating the administration’s drive to add Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to the NATO Alliance.

She also designed, coordinated and oversaw the implementation of the administration’s policy toward the countries in southeastern Europe during the war in Kosovo, including the creation of the Stability Pact.

In 2003, Ms. Braden received the prestigious Knight Cross of the Order of Merit from the Republic of Poland for her efforts to improve U.S.-Polish relations and assist Poland’s entry into NATO.

She also previously worked as Director for Central Europe and Regional Director for Latin America in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Ms. Braden holds an M. Phil in International Relations from Oxford University and a BA in History from Dartmouth College.