Erin Walsh is a Senior Research Fellow in International Affairs in the Asia Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation where she focuses on China, the South Caucasus, and select national security issues. 

Walsh has had an extensive career in both the private and public sectors and has worked in four Republican Presidential Administrations.

During her 16 years in the U.S. government, she has held policy and management roles including at the White House Office of Political Affairs, the Department of State Near Eastern Affairs Bureau, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, and the Department of Energy. From 2017–2020 she served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for International Organizations and for Africa at the National Security Council, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, and Special Assistant to the President and Associate Director for Presidential Personnel.

Walsh worked for the United Nations in Bosnia for 18 months during the war.  

She spent 12 years in the private sector at Goldman Sachs and Cisco. At Goldman Sachs, she was Executive Director and Head of the Office of Corporate Engagement for Asia Pacific from 2010–2015. While based in Hong Kong and then Beijing, China, she developed and executed a long-term strategic platform for engagement with clients, governments, and nonprofits throughout Asia. In Silicon Valley, Walsh was a Senior Manager in Corporate Affairs at Cisco. There, she built a public-private partnership organization and designed and led a growth strategy to bring a technology education program to more than 90 developing and emerging-market countries.

Walsh holds a bachelor of arts degree in Government and International Relations from Georgetown University and a master of science degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has traveled to over 100 countries.