Scott Lasensky

Scott Lasensky served as a Senior Policy Advisor on Israel, the Middle East and Jewish affairs in the Obama Administration from 2011-2017, serving in Washington and in Israel.He represented U.N. Ambassadors Susan E. Rice and Samantha J. Power in the interagency policymaking process, including participation in the Deputies Committee and other U.S. government and U.N. policymaking and policy processes. (USG security clearance: Top Secret/SCI) In Israel, he served with Ambassador Daniel Shapiro and was involved in all aspects of the U.S.-Israel bilateral relationship. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Israel Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), and previously a resident scholar and program leader at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington and the Council of Foreign Relations in New York.

A Ph.D. from Brandeis University, Scott was awarded a Brookings Research Fellowship (BRF) in 1999-2000. Lasensky is the co-author most recently of The Peace Puzzle: America’s Quest for Arab- Israeli Peace (Cornell University Press) and Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East (USIP Press), both books co-authored with Ambassador Daniel C. Kurtzer. He is married to Elise Pressma, they have three sons and live in Silver Spring, Maryland. Lasensky has a strong proficiency in Hebrew.