Participant Profiles

Brette Steele serves as the Senior Director for Preventing Targeted Violence at the McCain Institute for International Leadership. Prior to joining the McCain Institute, Steele served as the Regional Director of Strategic Engagement for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Terrorism Prevention Partnerships. In that role she advised the State of California in the development of a statewide Preventing Violent Extremism Strategy and partnered with counties, cities, and nonprofit organizations to develop and implement Preventing Violent Extremism programs.

Steele established and served as Deputy Director of the U.S. Countering Violent Extremism Task Force, which coordinated all federal efforts to prevent violent extremism in the United States. Prior to establishing the Countering Violent Extremism Task Force, Steele served as Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General and coordinated the U.S. Department of Justice’s terrorism prevention and forensic science reform initiatives. Steele also chaired the U.S. Department of Justice Arab- and Muslim-American Engagement Advisory Committee and vice chaired the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities. Steele graduated with a B.A. from University of California, Berkeley, and a J.D. from UCLA School of Law.

Rachel Hunkler is the Senior Program Manager for Preventing Targeted Violence at the McCain Institute. In this role, she manages the Institute’s international prevention and national security portfolios, including Invent2Prevent France, Invent2Protect UK, and the National Security and Counterterrorism fellowship program. Hunkler also focuses on domestic prevention programming at the high school level and was the lead designer of the I2P curriculum currently being piloted across 27 high schools in the United States. Finally, Hunkler is a co-author of the National Policy Blueprint to End White Supremacist Violence, which was published jointly with the Center for American Progress in April 2021 and heavily informed the first-ever White House National Strategy to Counter Domestic Terrorism.

Hunkler has a background in classroom teaching and educational non-profit work, both here in the U.S. and abroad. In 2013, the U.S. Department of State awarded her a Fulbright Grant to teach English at a bilingual high school in Spain. She was granted a rare Fulbright renewal in 2014 to serve as the Global Classroom Coordinator for the Spanish Fulbright Commission, where she ran Madrid’s Model UN program for over 300 students and conducted training for 65 Fulbright English Teaching Assistants. Upon returning to the U.S.,

Hunkler taught high school English and Spanish literature in Nashville for several years before earning her master’s degree. Prior to her work on the McCain Institute’s Preventing Targeted Violence programs, Hunkler spent two years managing the strategic design, execution, evaluation, and scaling of the McCain Institute’s Global Leadership programs.

Hunkler is originally from Nashville, Tennessee. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and K-12 education from the University of Alabama and a master’s degree in International Education Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Hunkler believes that education is the most powerful tool for creating more inclusive, peaceful societies. Through her work, she seeks to build bridges of mutual understanding within and across borders.

Neil Saul serves as the Senior Program Coordinator for Preventing Targeted Violence at the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University. Prior to joining the McCain Institute, Saul worked as a program coordinator with the Cato Institute doing outreach, program development, and building their student programs.

He holds a master’s degree in US foreign policy and national security from the American University in Washington, DC, where he focused on human rights and mass atrocity prevention. Saul also holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations and sociology from the University of Georgia. During his academic career, he has worked for organizations such as the International Rescue Committee, AirWars and the Military Commissions Defense Organization.

Matthew Khalkhali is a Preventing Targeted Violence intern at the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University. A recent graduate of California State University Los Angeles with a B.A. in political science and a concentration in global studies, Matthew is pursuing a career in combatting transnational crimes such as human trafficking and targeted violence. He is applying to the international affairs and leadership master’s program at Arizona State University.

Prior to his work at the McCain Institute, Matthew worked at UNICEF and the Los Angeles World Affairs Council. Having lived in Lyon, France for three years and studied at Lyon 2 University and Catholic University, Matthew is a fluent French speaker with a Diplôme Universitaire d’Études Françaises from the Université Lumière Lyon 2, Centre International d’Études Françaises and from the Université Catholique de Lyon, L’Institut de Langue et de Culture Françaises at the B2 level.

Victoria Balenger, PhD is a licensed psychologist with 28+ years of experience in higher education, independent practice, and a variety of EAP settings including the FBI, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and NASA/Goddard. Her FBI experience included psychological assessment of undercover and other special employee groups, EAP Deployment Specialist, and applied research for the Insider Threat Program. Dr. Balenger is an ATAP Certified Threat Manager and also holds the DoD Certified Counter Insider Threat Professional (CITTP-F) credential. She now maintains a psychotherapy & consulting practice in suburban MD.

What are you looking to gain from this symposium and the Prevention Practitioners Network? Expanded knowledge & perspective on targeted violence and aggression.

Zach Levy currently serves as President, Cognovi Government Services (CGS) LLC, a Cognovi Labs Company. Before pivoting to the private sector, Zach served in the US Army and Joint organizations in various special operations forces across the Dept. of Defense and Intelligence Community. Prior to military service, Zach began his career as a US Border Patrol Agent in San Diego, CA. His education includes a MA of International Service from American University, MBA from the University of Phoenix, and a Double BA in Sociology and Political Science from Ohio University.

What are you looking to gain from this symposium and the Prevention Practitioners Network? Leveraging my experiences across government, industry, and academia to add value wherever I can.

Managing Partner at National Extremism Consulting & Training Services, Subject Matter Expert-White Supremacist-White Nationalist Gangs/Groups, Anti-Government Movements, Sovereign Citizens.

Makenzie serves as the District Counseling Specialist and Threat Assessment Coordinator for one of the largest school districts in Tennessee. She has 5+ years experience in threat assessment facilitation and training. She is a National Certified Counselor, Licensed School Counselor and active member of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP).

What are you looking to gain from this symposium and the Prevention Practitioners Network? I am always looking to evaluate our district's current procedures to ensure we stay up to date on best practices. Additionally, I look forward to networking with other TA professionals.

Tammy Palacios is a Senior Analyst and Program Head for Nonstate Actors at the New Lines Institute in DC. The Nonstate Actors Program reveals local contexts that are understudied and/or misunderstood in an effort to reconceptualize threat-forward national security policy. She is a proponent for sustainable CT and P/CVE as supported by a truly cross-sectoral and multi-faceted understanding of the individuals, group, and region in question.

What are you looking to gain from this symposium and the Prevention Practitioners Network? I look forward to being an active student to the great things PPN and its participants are contributing to the P/CVE sphere. I may not fit the practitioner parameters, and am certainly junior in career status - but my intents are intricately supported to interdisciplinary approaches to P/CVE and CT connected to full understanding through bridging the gap between practitioners, policy makers, academia and researchers.