Trump Taps Florida’s Chief Resilience Officer as Homeland Security Adviser

President Donald Trump speaks at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, N.C., on Feb. 7, 2020. Sean Rayford/Getty Images

President Donald Trump has hired Florida’s Chief Resilience Officer Julia Nesheiwat as his new homeland security adviser, National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien confirmed on Saturday.

“Pleased to welcome Dr. Julia Nesheiwat, who will serve as Deputy Assistant to the President working on Homeland Security and Resilience,” O'Brien said in a statement. “She comes with extensive national security experience, which will be invaluable for this important role.”

Nesheiwat’s resume (pdf) shows she got her Ph.D. from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2014. The title of her dissertation was “Post-Disaster Reconstruction in Energy Technology & Resiliency.”

She was appointed as Florida’s first chief resilience officer by Governor Ron DeSantis last year to “coordinate a statewide response to prepare for the environmental, physical, and economic challenges” in Florida.

Before joining DeSantis’s administration, she worked in the State Department and has extensive experience in national security.

Nesheiwat was a former U.S. Army military intelligence officer and acted as military liaison officer to the Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait between 2001 and 2003.

She served as Deputy Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs before she left the State Department on Aug. 5, 2019.