Emily Siefken is a 10 year military veteran of two wars in the Middle East (U.S. Navy) where she performed diverse duties such as CCTV operator, documentary filmmaker, electronics engineer and boot-camp instructor. Siefken asks her audience to understand what It means to be an American. Siefken uses performance art, emerging technologies and sometimes sculputure. Her work primarily deals with ritual as it applies to military and religious practice and women’s experience in wartime environments. She asks her audience to reflect upon the "hero" as HE has been represented, traditionally.

Siefken has performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Sarah Lawrence College in New York, The School of the Art Instutute of Chicago and has had work displayed in Chicago area galleries. She is sought after as a lecturer on topics regarding women in military combat roles. She is a graduate of Performance and Art and Technology studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she teaches SAIC WIRED computer literacy courses .