Victoria C. Gardner Coates

VICTORIA C. GARDNER COATES is the vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation. Coates’s personal scholarship focuses on building global energy security, countering predatory Chinese activity, expanding the historic Abraham Accords, and establishing a US-led Middle East strategic alliance. The author of David’s Sling: A History of Democracy in Ten Works of Art, Coates routinely appears on TV and radio and her writing has appeared in outlets including Bloomberg, the New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal.

Coates previously served as the senior policy advisor to the secretary of energy and deputy national security advisor for the Middle East and North Africa on the National Security Council for President Donald J. Trump. She also served as the national security advisor for Senator Ted Cruz, and director for research for former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Coates holds a BA from Trinity College, an MA from Williams College, and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, all in art history.