Elsa Kania was a Research Fellow at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), focused on Chinese military innovation in emerging technologies. She was co-founder of the China Cyber and Intelligence Studies Institute, was a 2018 Fulbright Specialist and Non-Resident Fellow with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s International Cyber Policy Centre, Adjunct Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, and has advised the China Aerospace Studies Institute, and Technology for Global Security. Her prior professional experience includes time with the Department of Defense, the Long Term Strategy Group, FireEye, and the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy.

Elsa has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) and the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC). She is a Ph.D. student at Harvard University’s Department of Government, and is a graduate of Harvard College (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa). Her thesis on the evolution of the PLA’s strategic thinking on information warfare was awarded the James Gordon Bennett Prize. Elsa was a Boren Scholar in Beijing, and she has professional proficiency in Mandarin Chinese.