Allison Hooker is a foreign policy and national security specialist with 20 years of experience in the U.S. Government working on Asia. Allison served for more than six years on the National Security Council staff, including as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Asia, where she led the coordination and implementation of U.S. policy toward the Indo-Pacific region, and coordinated policy approaches with allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific and Europe. Prior to that, Allison served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for the Korean Peninsula, where she focused on U.S. policy toward the Koreas, and staffed the President for all engagements with North and South Korea, including the U.S.-DPRK Summits in Singapore, Hanoi, and the DMZ.
Prior to her service at the White House, Allison was a senior analyst for North Korea in the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research from 2001 to 2014. In that role, she staffed the Six-Party Talks on North Korea’s nuclear program and provided analytical support to U.S. negotiators.
Allison was selected as the 2013-2014 Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in South Korea, where she focused on South Korea’s Unification Policy. She received a Masters’ of Arts Degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Public Administration from Georgia College and State University. Allison also was a research fellow at Osaka University and Keio University, where she focused on Japan-Korea relations, and Japan-China relations, respectively. Allison is a native of Macon, Georgia.