A 2025-2026 Watson School of International and Public Affairs senior fellow, Laurel Rapp is a foreign policy leader and practitioner with nearly two decades of experience at the State Department, National Security Council, Senate, and non-profit space.  Following her departure from government in August 2025, Laurel joined Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, an independent policy institute based in London where she serves as U.S. and North America Program Director.  While in government, Laurel served as Deputy Director of Secretary of State Blinken’s Policy Planning Staff, where she managed the Dissent Channel, the Secretary’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board, and other strategic initiatives.  From 2021-2023, she served as a member of the Policy Planning Staff focused on the United Nations and the Middle East.  After joining the State Department in 2011, Laurel worked on Middle East issues for the Deputy Secretary of State, the National Security Council, and the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.  She also covered UN and multilateral issues with the Bureau of International Organization Affairs and the U.S. Mission to the UN’s Washington office.  In 2020, Laurel served as a fellow on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee focused on Europe and South & Central Asia.  Before her time in government, Laurel worked at the OneVoice Movement, a Middle East-focused youth organization in New York, and conducted research on youth political participation in Morocco as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar.  Laurel graduated from Brown University and received a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.  She speaks some Arabic, French, and Italian.