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Speaker Biography: Dr. Rebecca Keiser

Chief of Research Security Strategy and Policy
Head, Office of International Science & Engineering
National Science Foundation

Dr. Rebecca Spyke Keiser is head of the Office of International Science & Engineering (OISE) and the Chief of Research Security Strategy and Policy (CORSSP) at the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Keiser has served as head of OISE since coming to NSF in 2015. The office promotes an integrated, international strategy and manages internally focused programs that are innovative, catalytic and responsive to a broad range of NSF and national interests.

Keiser is the first CORSSP, a position established in March 2020 to ensure the security of federally funded research while maintaining open international collaboration. In this role, Keiser provides the NSF director with policy advice on all aspects of research security strategy. She also leads NSF’s efforts to develop and implement efforts to improve research security and the agency’s coordination with other federal agencies and the White House.

Prior to NSF, she was a special advisor to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) administrator and an executive-in-residence at American University. She held several positions with NASA, including associate deputy administrator for strategy and policy, associate deputy administrator for policy integration, and executive officer to the deputy administrator.

Keiser also served as assistant to the director for international relations at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she provided policy guidance to the president's science advisor. Her experience covers science and technology policy, agreements and other cooperative efforts. She is a board member of Women in Aerospace and a member of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science. She has a bachelor's degree in Japanese studies from Wellesley College; a master's degree in politics of the world economy from the London School of Economics; and a doctorate in international studies from the University of South Carolina. She speaks Japanese and Spanish.