Kathryn Brinsfield

Dr. Kathryn Brinsfield was selected as Director of ODNI’s National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center (NCBC) in late 2022. In this position, she leads the Intelligence Community to counter and halt the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and serves as the lead for the integration of intelligence activities pertaining to biosecurity and foreign biological threats.

Immediately prior to NCBC, Dr. Brinsfield served as the Senior Advisor to the National Intelligence Manager – Climate and Global Issues (NIM-CGI) where she had a leading role in establishing ODNI’s global health mission by helping to develop the office of NIM-CGI and defining the IC’s intelligence priorities in critical areas of environmental and health security. Dr. Brinsfield also previously served as Senior Advisor to the Director of NCBC, formerly known as the National Counterproliferation Center (NCPC).

Prior to joining the IC in 2017, Dr. Brinsfield served in a variety of roles in her ten years with the Department of Homeland Security, most recently serving as the Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs and Chief Medical Officer of the Department of Homeland Security. In that role, she served as the principal advisor to the DHS Secretary and FEMA Administrator on medical and public health issues. She coordinated developmental strategy and policy relating to terrorist attacks and other high-consequence events involving infectious diseases and biological and chemical agents that pose a threat to Homeland security. She was previously assigned to the National Security Council as the Director for Medical Preparedness Policy. In this role, she coordinated efforts that helped launch the Stop the Bleed campaign. In her earlier years at DHS, she also served as the Operational Medical Director, where she oversaw the design and implementation of DHS Austere medical training and protocols.

Before joining DHS in 2008, Dr. Brinsfield was an Associate Medical Director of Boston EMS and an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Boston University. She has authored academic papers on neuroscience, biosurveillance, and prehospital care and coordination. She holds an M.D. from Tufts University, an M.P.H. from Boston University, as well as a B.S. with Honors in Neuroscience from Brown University.