Bio:
Kayla T. Orta is a Nonresident Fellow in the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative (IPSI) at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. As a former US Department of Defense National Security Education Program Boren scholar, her regional expertise lies in Indo-Pacific foreign policy, US-Republic of Korea (ROK) ties, North Korea, and US-ROK-Japan trilateral relations, especially at the intersection of security and technology policy. Her work focuses on non-proliferation, nuclear deterrence, and civil nuclear energy markets.
Professionally fluent in Korean, Orta most recently worked as the Senior Associate at the Wilson Center’s Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy.
She holds an MIS in Korean Studies from Seoul National University’s Graduate School of International Studies. Her thesis, written in Korean, analyzed US and South Korean foreign policy strategies during the 1994 North Korean Nuclear Crisis.