Kayla T. Orta

Expert Bio

Kayla T. Orta is a Nonresident Fellow in the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative (IPSI) at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. As a former US Department of Defense National Security Education Program Boren scholar, her regional expertise lies in Indo-Pacific foreign policy, US-Republic of Korea (ROK) ties, North Korea, and US-ROK-Japan trilateral relations, especially at the intersection of security and technology policy. Her work focuses on nonproliferation, nuclear deterrence, and civil nuclear energy markets.

Professionally fluent in Korean, Orta most recently worked as the Senior Associate at the Wilson Center’s Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy. In her role at the Wilson Center, she oversaw the Korea Center’s programmatic and strategic engagement, expanding conversations on US-Korean cooperation on security, trade, technology, and energy. She managed the KF Junior Scholar Program and the 2024 NextGen US-ROK Leadership initiative. She also served as Project Manager for the Wilson Center’s 2023 Commission on US-ROK-Japan Trilateral Relations. Her first book titled, Avoiding Meltdowns & Blackouts: Confidence-building in Inter-Korean Engagement on Nuclear Safety and Energy Development (Wilson Center, 2023), featured insights from US and South Korean nuclear policy experts. 

Previously, Orta was a US member of the Department of State’s Women Experts in US-ROK-Japan Trilateral Security program and participated in the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Next Generation Arms Control Expert initiative. Prior to her research in Seoul, South Korea, she worked in the History and Public Policy Program at the Wilson Center, spearheading research for the North Korea International Documentation Project (NKIDP). She has held a variety of fellowships in the United States and South Korea, including Kathryn Davis Peace Fellowship (2018), ROK Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2020), Nuclear Nonproliferation Education and Research Center at KAIST (2021), East-West Center’s Consortium on ROK-US and Indo-Pacific (2023), and European Centre for North Korean Studies (2024-present). Her commentary has been featured in major media outlets including ABC 7, BBC, France24, Deutsche Welle, Australia Broadcast Corporation (ABC), Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia (RFA), Bloomberg, The Washington Post, and The Diplomat. 

She holds an MIS in Korean Studies from Seoul National University’s Graduate School of International Studies. Her thesis, written in Korean, analyzed US and South Korean foreign policy strategies during the 1994 North Korean Nuclear Crisis.