Deborah A. Curtis

Prior to joining the CIA, Deborah served as Chief Counsel for Industry and Security at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where she advised executive leadership and the National Security Council on legal enforcement and policy decisions related to the expansion of export controls and enforcement mechanisms, including the Entity List, emerging technologies, and the foreign direct product rule.

Deborah previously spent more than a decade in various roles at the U.S. Department of Justice. She worked as a Trial Attorney and Deputy Chief in the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section prosecuting Espionage Act and other national security-related cases, as well as overseeing criminal sanctions, export control investigations, and prosecutions nationwide. Deborah also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and Deputy Chief in the National Security Section for the District of Columbia, where she investigated, prosecuted, and supervised a broad spectrum of cases, including nation-state sponsored espionage and malign cyber activities; illegal foreign agents; economic espionage; export control and sanctions violations; and related criminal matters involving fraud, terrorism, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Speech or Debate Clause, and other constitutional issues.

Deborah began her career as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California’s Criminal Division. Following that, she served ten years with the U.S. Department of the Air Force as an active duty and reserve Judge Advocate, attaining the grade of Major. During this time, Deborah was the Cadet Counsel at the U.S. Air Force Academy and served as Associate Deputy General Counsel for National Security and Military Affairs at the Pentagon.