A defense expert with experience in Congress, the State Department, the Department of Defense and an influential think tank has found a new weapon to influence policy - lobbying.
Stephanie Sanok Kostro left the Center for Strategic and International Studies last month for a lobbying position with O'Brien, Gentry and Scott LLC, a Washington D.C.-based firm specializing in defense contracting. She submitted her first filing last week, and the records show her lobbying on the defense budget for 2016 and on defense acquisition issues.
Before joining CSIS, Sanok Kostro had a long and diverse career of public service. She joined the Office of the Secretary of Defense in 1998 when President Bill Clinton appointee William Cohen held the position and remained as a foreign affairs specialist when Donald Rumsfeld took over under President George W. Bush in 2001.
Sanok Kastro left the Department of Defense in 2005 to become a professional staff member on the House Armed Services Committee. Over the next three-and-a-half years she helped research and draft legislation relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and national security. Leaving Congress in 2008, Sanok Kostro joined the State Department as a strategic analysis officer for a year before transitioning to the private sector and joining the think tank CSIS.
At CSIS, Sanok Kastro has also made numerous media appearances and written articles for a variety of outlets. In 2015, she appeared on C-SPAN and DefenseNews several times to discuss the rise of ISIS and the American response.
