Mackenzie Holtz

Fellow

mholtz@cohengroup.net

Ms. Mackenzie Holtz joined The Cohen Group in January 2024 after completing her master’s degree in Security Policy Studies from George Washington University, where she focused her coursework on transnational security threats, illicit trade networks, and irregular conflicts. Her graduate capstone project assessed the security and environmental vulnerabilities of subsea telecommunications infrastructure in the Red Sea.

Ms. Holtz has focused on religious militant non-state actors and complex conflict in the Middle East throughout her professional and academic career.  She most recently served as a research intern on the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies where she published analysis on the Islamic State, Hayyat Tahrir al-Sham, Kurdistan Workers Party, and Hamas. She has previously held roles at Thomson Reuters Special Services, the Quincy Institute, the Program on Extremism, and the Institute for the Study of War.

Ms. Holtz received two bachelor’s degrees from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in International Studies and Comparative Religion with minors in Arabic Language and Literature, Spanish, and Middle East and Islamic Studies. While at Miami University, Ms. Holtz completed language programs in Amman, Jordan and received the US State Department’s Critical Language Scholarship for Arabic study in Ibri, Oman. In her free time, Ms. Holtz continues her language study in Arabic, French, and Spanish.