KEI Contributor

Kathryn Paik is a senior fellow with the Australia Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Prior to joining CSIS, Kathryn served in the United States Marine Corps for over 23 years, most recently as the director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific on the National Security Council (NSC) (2021–2023), where she spearheaded numerous initiatives for the administration, including the creation of the first U.S. Pacific Partnership Strategy and the initial U.S.-Pacific Islands Forum Summit. Prior to her time at the NSC, Kathryn held a variety of positions as a Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia foreign area officer, including serving as the marine attaché to Indonesia for three years and as a CH-46E combat helicopter pilot, during which she deployed to Iraq and throughout the Indo-Pacific. Kathryn has a master’s in national security affairs from the Naval Postgraduate School and a bachelor of science in systems engineering from the Naval Academy. She speaks Mandarin and Indonesian.