Leadership

KRISTINA ARRIAGA

Kristina Arriaga helps founders, CEOs, and institutions communicate during the moments that define them.

For more than three decades, she has advised leaders facing consequential decisions—helping them explain complex ideas, navigate public scrutiny, and earn the trust of the people they need to lead. Whether counseling a frontier AI company, representing the United States on the international stage, or advocating for individuals imprisoned because of their beliefs, her work has always begun with the same question: What is the deeper story, and why should people trust it?

She also serves on several boards and as a Trustee of the Meta Oversight Board, the independent body that reviews some of the company's most significant content moderation decisions. Previously, she served as Vice Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom after being appointed by the United States Congress. In that role, she met with senior government officials across the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Asia to advocate for fundamental human rights. Earlier in her career, she represented the United States at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and spent more than two decades leading one of the nation's foremost public-interest law organizations dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and religious liberty.

A frequent speaker and commentator, Kristina has appeared on BBC, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and C-SPAN. Her writing has been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Hill, and other national publications, where she has explored topics ranging from constitutional freedoms and international affairs to artificial intelligence, institutional trust, and democratic governance. She is the recipient of the Newseum's Free Expression Award, joining a distinguished group of honorees that includes Tim Cook, John Lewis, and Martha Raddatz.

Kristina is reading for a DPhil in Law at the University of Oxford. Her research examines how moral intuitions shape legal reasoning cases associated with human dignity, freedom of religion or belief, and the governance of emerging technologies.

She believes the strongest organizations are built not only on innovation or expertise, but on trust. Helping leaders earn that trust—and communicate it with clarity, conviction, and integrity—is the work that continues to inspire her.

Kristina lives in Virginia with her husband, a retired Marine. Together they have three grown children, a spirited dog, and two cats who remain convinced they run the household.