Janice Kephart

Former National Security Director

Ms. Kephart was the Center's former National Security Director and National Security Fellow. Before coming to the Center she held the Special Counsel position with the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she advised and supported Senator Jeff Sessions' (R-AL) work during the committee's consideration of immigration legislation.

Ms. Kephart is an internationally recognized border and ID security expert, who served as counsel to the 9/11 Commission and was a key author of the Staff Monograph, 9/11 and Terrorist Travel as well as the immigration-related facts and recommendations in the 9/11 Commission Report. She is currently owner and managing director of Identity Strategy Partners, LLP.

Prior to 9/11, she was responsible for conducting factual investigations into counter-terrorism issues and conducting oversight of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (before the creation of the Department of Homeland Security) as a counsel to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology and Terrorism, including drafting and passage of the federal identity theft statute used by US attorneys to prosecute identity thieves and support victims. She also put together the only Congressional hearing and record focusing on the foreign terrorist threat on our homeland prior to 9/11. More recently, she took a leave of absence to serve as a Special Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee for the purpose of working on the Gang of Eight immigration bill.

Ms. Kephart speaks regularly at conferences, to international media, publishes articles and op-eds around the world, and has testified before Congress 15 times on issues of border and ID security. She attended Duke University and Villanova Law School. Ms. Kephart has been featured by Duke University as one of the most influential alums of the 1980s.