Katie Morgan Sizemore

Katie Sizemore is an international affairs fellow at in national security, sponsored by Janine and J. Tomilson Hill at the Council on Foreign Relations. Sizemore is a national security and crisis management professional with more than a decade of experience across the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Department of Justice. Her work centers on enhancing global resilience to complex crises, specifically in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific. At CFR, her research examines civilian preparedness in deterrence strategy and U.S.-Taiwan security cooperation.

Sizemore was a Senior Policy analyst at DHS’s office of International Affairs, shaping policy initiatives with Indo-Pacific partners across DHS components. From 2022 to 2026, she led FEMA’s strategic partnerships with Taiwan, directing seven bilateral delegations focused on crisis preparedness, disaster response planning, and civil-military coordination. She advised Taiwan counterparts during three national-level disaster exercises and facilitated training on incident management and mass casualty response. She also provided policy and operational briefings to the National Security Council and the American Institute in Taiwan on regional resilience and emergency preparedness initiatives.

Across six hurricane seasons and the COVID-19 pandemic, Sizemore deployed as the international affairs advisor to the chief of FEMA’s National Response Coordination Center. She led the coordination of international assistance to U.S. federal responses, bringing in millions of commodities distributed across the nation. Earlier in her career, Sizemore led crisis management and security cooperation programs across the Western Hemisphere for the Organization of American States. She conducted fieldwork in El Salvador on negotiation mechanisms for reducing gang violence.

Sizemore holds an MA in international peace and conflict resolution from American University’s School of International Service and a BA in international affairs and Spanish from Kennesaw State University, where she was the university scholar in international affairs and was recently recognized with a 2025 40 under 40 award.