Amanda Timko spent more than 20 years in the intelligence and policy community, working at both the Central Intelligence Agency as an all source-analyst, intelligence educator, and manager and at the Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer. She retired from federal service in March 2026 and was brought onto Mercyhurst's online master's program in Fall 2026 as a practitioner of intelligence and adjunct faculty. In addition to decades of intelligence work on Balkans leadership, counterterrorism, and cyber threats, Amanda was an instructor at CIA's Sherman Kent School, teaching in their foundational analysis course and as an instructor for the executive leadership program at CIA. At the Department of State, she served two tours as a political officer in Skopje, North Macedonia, and Brussels, Belgium. She currently lives in Beaufort, SC, with her husband and teenage daughter.