Sarah Karlen is an Operations Assistant for the Cyber & Critical Infrastructure Portfolio at the Institute for Security and Technology, where she handles general administration, serves as its business operations liaison, and supports scholar research and portfolio initiatives. She earned a BA in Public Policy and Leadership from the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia and a BA in Global Security and Justice from the College of Arts & Sciences. Her senior thesis analyzed the governance architecture of commercial AI integration into U.S. defense institutions, and her capstone examined the expansion of China’s AI-powered surveillance state and the spread of digital authoritarianism. At UVA, she served as a teaching assistant for courses on U.S. national security policy and political theory. Since graduating, she helped run the annual Reindustrialize Summit in Detroit, Michigan, which convenes tech startups, government agencies, and venture capital firms to advance the rebuilding of the U.S. industrial base.