Leslie Shedd is a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. She is also the founder of Rising Communications, a full-service communications firm with a focus on national security. Prior to joining the Atlantic Council, Shedd served as a senior advisor to members of the US Congress, US senatorial and presidential candidates, and top trade associations for more than fifteen years.

Most recently, Shedd served as the communications director and senior advisor for the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, as well as the deputy chief of staff for communications to the personal office of the committee’s chairman, Representative Michael McCaul (R-TX). In those roles, she managed the communications strategy for both the committee and the chairman’s personal office, advising the chairman on domestic issues and foreign policy.

Shedd was also previously the communications director for then-Representative Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) and Representative Frank Lucas (R-OK). She has also worked on numerous campaigns, having served as the deputy campaign manager and senior communications advisor for then-Representative Jim Renacci’s (R-OH) campaign for the US Senate in Ohio in 2018; the campaign manager and communications director for Kathy Szeliga’s campaign for the US Senate in Maryland in 2016; the national press secretary for Carly Fiorina’s presidential campaign in 2016; and the Georgia communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2014. In the private sector, she has worked as vice president of communications at the National Restaurant Association and senior vice president at Firehouse Strategies.

Shedd earned a law degree from the University of the District of Columbia and a bachelors degree from Clemson University in her home state of South Carolina. She is an alumna of the Wilson Center Foreign Policy Fellowship Program, the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Congressional Fellowship, and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy’s Media Fellowship Program.