Kayla T. Orta is a nonresident fellow in the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Orta is also a nonresident fellow at the European Centre for North Korean Studies. As a former US Department of Defense National Security Education Program Boren scholar, her regional expertise lies in US-Republic of Korea (ROK) ties, North Korea, and US-ROK-Japan trilateral relations 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. She has held a variety of fellowships in the United States and South Korea, including at the ROK Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Nuclear Nonproliferation Education and Research Center at KAIST. 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.

Orta’s published articles on US-Indo-Pacific relations include “US-ROK Global Strategic Partnership in the Indo-Pacific,” “Defending Energy Security Pathways: US-ROK-Japan Strategic Cooperation,” and “Strength in Partnership: Elevating US-ROK Cooperation in Nuclear Energy.” She is also the editor of, Avoiding Meltdowns & Blackouts: Confidence-building in Inter-Korean Engagement on Nuclear Safety and Energy Development, which features insights from US and South Korean nuclear policy experts. 

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. She also attained her dual BA in international studies and foreign languages (magna cum laude) from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.