Dr. Brooke Taylor

Dr. Brooke Taylor occupies a genuinely rare position in the Washington national security ecosystem: a doctoral scholar and distinguished faculty member whose expertise was built not in the classroom alone, but through direct operational experience on Capitol Hill, at U.S. Strategic Command, and in the nonprofit and advisory community that shapes American defense policy from the outside.

Brooke served on Capitol Hill as a George Washington University Nuclear Security Fellow — a prestigious appointment that placed her at the center of some of the most consequential appropriations work in Congress. In that role she led three of the most significant funding portfolios in the federal budget: Defense, Energy and Water Development, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs. She simultaneously managed the U.S. Congressional Nuclear Security Working Group — a cross-partisan body that coordinates congressional engagement on nuclear security policy — and served as Military Liaison Assistant to U.S. Strategic Command, the combatant command responsible for America's nuclear deterrent, space operations, cyberspace, and global strike capabilities.

That combination is not common. Congressional appropriations expertise at the subcommittee level requires years of sustained immersion. Direct STRATCOM liaison experience is exceedingly rare among civilian policy professionals. Managing the nuclear security working group requires both the policy depth and the relational credibility to convene Members and staff around the nation's most consequential deterrence questions. Brooke did all three simultaneously — and the substantive command of the intersection between defense funding, nuclear policy, and military operational requirements that resulted is one of the most specialized and valuable knowledge sets in Washington.

Brooke is the Founder and CEO of Defending Our Country (DOC), LLC, and a former congressional candidate in Virginia's competitive 10th District. She serves on the Board of Directors for Meadowkirk at Delta Farm, Evergreen Christian School, and the Middleburg Community Center, and on the Board of Regents for the Strategic Deterrence Coalition. As a distinguished faculty member at Missouri State University's School of Defense and Strategic Studies, she shapes the next generation of national security professionals with the same rigor she has brought to every operational role in her career.

She holds a Doctorate of Strategic Leadership and a Master of Arts in Government from Regent University — credentials that anchor her operational experience in the analytical and strategic frameworks that define serious national security scholarship.