Jake Braun, MA

Jake Braun is the Executive Director for the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy’s Cyber Policy Initiative, where he works at the center of politics, technology, and national security to advance the field of cyber policy. Mr. Braun has worked extensively on national security and finance issues throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.

Mr. Braun served in the Obama Administration as White House Liaison to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) where he oversaw some of the most high profile public engagements executed at DHS. Prior to his tenure as White House Liaison, Mr. Braun served on the Presidential Transition Team for the Obama Administration as Deputy Director for the National Security Agencies Review.

In addition to his role at Harris, Mr. Braun is co-founder of the DEF CON Voting Machine Hacking Village, the largest hacker conference in the world and in cooperation with them he has co-authored two fundamental and critically acclaimed reports on election infrastructure cyber vulnerabilities, The DEF CON 25 and 26 Voting Village Reports.

Mr. Braun began his career as a journalist for newspapers in Illinois and Taiwan. He holds an MA in International Relations from Troy St. University, an MA in Education from National-Louis University in Chicago, and a BA in Philosophy from Loyola University of Chicago.