Victoria Coates

Victoria C. Gardner Coates is an American art historian, blogger and political consultant. She has served as Senior Advisor to Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette since February 2020. [1] She served on the United States National Security Council, originally as the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Strategic Assessments before getting promoted to Deputy National Security Advisor upon the nomination of Robert C. O'Brien.[2][3][4]

Victoria Coates
United States Deputy National Security Advisor for Middle East and North African Affairs
In office
October 10, 2019 – February 21, 2020
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byVacant
Personal details
BornLancaster, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
EducationTrinity College, Connecticut (BA)
Williams College (MA)
University of Pennsylvania (PhD)

Early life and education

Coates was born and raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania where her father started an investment firm.[5] She is a descendant of Andrew Gregg Curtin who served as Governor of Pennsylvania during the Civil War.[6]

After earning an undergraduate degree at Trinity College, Connecticut she obtained a master's degree in art history from Williams College and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, where she wrote a thesis on Camillo Massimo.[7] She later taught at the University as an occasional adjunct instructor.[6]

Career

In the 2000s, she blogged mainly about foreign policy under the pen name "AcademicElephant" at the Conservative blog RedState.[6][8] Her blog posts were read by aides of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who later recruited Coates to work as an advisor for his book, Known and Unknown: A Memoir, published in 2011.[6][9]

Coates served as an advisor to former Texas governor Rick Perry during his 2012 presidential bid before she became an advisor to Ted Cruz in 2013 and his leading national security advisor during his 2016 presidential campaign.[6]

Her book David's Sling: A History of Democracy in Ten Works of Art was published early in 2016. The book covers ten European artists and their major works, including Michelangelo (David), Jacques-Louis David (The Death of Marat), and Picasso (Guernica).[10]

She lives in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia with her husband and two children.[6] Coates married her husband while a student at Penn. George Coates is a wine dealer. Her children are Gardner and Gowen.[11]

Coates had been part of the White House since Trump took office in 2017, and became one of the President's longest-serving staffers. Her area of expertise, national security, made her a key player in the government's deliberations on Iran and the Middle East; as such, Robert C. O'Brien appointed her Deputy National Security Advisor for Middle East and North African Affairs a few weeks after taking office. In her role as deputy, she split her duties with fellow deputy Matthew Pottinger.[12] In February of 2020, it became known that Coates was leaving the White House to become a senior advisor at the Energy Department;[13] the transfer officially occurred a few days later.[14]

As an advisor to the Energy Secretary, Coates has been based in Saudi Arabia to ensure the Department had an added presence in the region, as Washington struggled to deal with the global oil price crash threatening US energy producers.[15] Her start date remained unknown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[16]

gollark: I think we mostly teach those because some people like it and you need it for engineering and such.
gollark: Macron.
gollark: Outside of contrived problems.
gollark: It actually isn't very useful until you reach a reasonable skill level, I think.
gollark: That is what I said in the article.

References
  1. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/20/top-national-security-aide-anonymous-book-116325
  2. Toosi, Nahal. "Trump's new national security adviser shakes up staff". POLITICO. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
  3. Karin McQuillan (February 7, 2017). "Trump picks Ted Cruz's anti-jihadi adviser for National Security Council". American Thinker. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
  4. "O'Brien names new deputy national security adviser". Axios. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
  5. "Meet Art Historian Victoria Coates — Ted Cruz's Key National-Security Adviser". National Review. 2016-02-15. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  6. Jay Nordlinger (February 15, 2016) Meet Art Historian Victoria Coates — Ted Cruz’s Key National-Security Adviser National Review
  7. "An Art Historian Serves on the National Security Council". artnet News. 2017-02-14. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  8. Smith, Ben. "Perry's foreign policy, continued". POLITICO. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  9. Diaz, Kevin (2016-01-11). "The art history professor behind Cruz's foreign policy". HoustonChronicle.com. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  10. Victor Davis Hanson (25 April 2016). "Art and the Free Man (book review)". National Review. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  11. "The Art of National-Security Advising". National Review. 2016-02-15. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
  12. Talev, Margaret (October 10, 2019). "O'Brien names new deputy national security adviser". Axios. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  13. "Trump's deputy national security adviser Victoria Coates leaving White House". Reuters. 2020-02-20. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
  14. Crowley, Michael (February 20, 2020). "Aide Accused of Being Anonymous Op-Ed Writer Is Reassigned to Energy Department". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  15. Wadhams, Nick (March 24, 2020). "Former NSC Official Coates Going to Saudi Arabia Amid Price War". Bloomberg News. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  16. "US to appoint Victoria Coates as special energy envoy to Saudi Arabia". The National. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
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