SLOTKIN
Elissa

• 1. Early life and education
• 2. Early career

Elissa Blair Slotkin is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from Michigan's 8th congressional district since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst and Department of Defense official. Her district is based in Lansing, and stretches into the outer northern and western suburbs of Detroit. She is presently serving as the chair of the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism in the House Committee on Homeland Security.

Early life and education

Slotkin was born on July 10, 1976, in New York City, the daughter of Curt Slotkin and Judith (née Spitz) Slotkin. She is Jewish. Slotkin spent her early life on a farm in Holly, Michigan. She attended Cranbrook Kingswood School in Bloomfield Hills. Her family farm was part of Hygrade Meat Company, founded by her grandfather, Hugo Slotkin. Hygrade is the original company behind Ball Park Franks, a brand now owned by Tyson Foods.

Slotkin received a BA in sociology from Cornell University (1998) and an MIA from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (2003).

Early career

Slotkin was recruited into the Central Intelligence Agency after graduate school. Fluent in Arabic and Swahili, she served three tours in Iraq as a CIA analyst. During the George W. Bush administration, she worked on the Iraq portfolio for the National Security Council. During Barack Obama's presidency, she worked for the State Department and the Department of Defense. Slotkin was acting assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs from 2015 to 2017.

After leaving the Defense Department in January 2017, Slotkin moved back to her family's farm in Holly, where she owned and operated Pinpoint Consulting. Since 2019, she has served on the Transatlantic Task Force of the German Marshall Fund and the Bundeskanzler-Helmut-Schmidt-Stiftung.