Elizabeth Vish is the Senior Director for International Cyber Engagement at the Institute for Security and Technology, where she leads IST’s work engaging audiences outside the United States with recommendations from IST’s work on the Future of Digital Security and the Ransomware Task Force. She regularly contributes to global discussions on cybersecurity best practices, including how the public and private sector can collaborate effectively and how the multistakeholder community can offer cyber capacity building to developing nations.  

Elizabeth comes to IST from the Department of State, where she served as a member of the State Department’s cyber foreign policy team.  Serving most recently in the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, Elizabeth developed and implemented policies to strengthen cybersecurity policy globally and to promote a framework of responsible state behavior in cyberspace.  Her most recent portfolio focused on how to build the capacity of partner governments to address cybersecurity threats and threats to international security related to cyberspace.  In this role, she led large-scale interagency coordination on cyber capacity building efforts globally and provided practical support for Embassies and the U.S. interagency on how to approach cyber capacity building efforts. Elizabeth also served as the lead policymaker for engagement with sub-Saharan Africa on cyber issues.  Her previous portfolios have included leading State Department policy formulation on cyber effects operations and drafting policy on deterring malicious state-sponsored activities in cyberspace.  Ms. Vish was a Presidential Management Fellow from 2013 – 2015, covering macroeconomic trends and debt issues at the Department of Treasury and State Department’s Office of Monetary Affairs.

Ms. Vish is a member of the Advisory Board of the Global Forum for Cyber Expertise and serves on the board of a local non-profit in Colorado. Previous to her federal career, she worked at the National Democratic Institute to support women’s participation in democratic processes and legislative strengthening programs in Southern Africa.  She received a Master’s of Arts in International Relations with honors from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, with dual concentrations in International Economics and Southeast Asian Studies.