Prior to joining Beacon, Ms. Schaffer completed her graduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where she focused on Security, Strategy, and Statecraft in Europe and Eurasia.
Concurrent with her graduate studies, Ms. Schaffer served as a Counterintelligence Officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A). While there, she supported the Office of International Engagement in managing its policy portfolio and briefing senior leadership through collaboration with foreign partners, particularly those in Europe, South Asia, and the Middle East. Ms. Schaffer also served as an Intelligence Analyst at the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, where she studied patterns of violence in the Greater Boston Area to combat terrorism and organized crime.
Ms. Schaffer holds an M.A. in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. with Honors in International Relations from the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. Her graduate capstone project explored post-Spanish colonial institutional development in Chile and Peru. She is proficient in Spanish and earned a minor in Spanish from the Boston University College of Arts and Sciences.
