I am a Senior Fellow for Foreign Policy and National Security at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis (CCA). I am also an adjunct faculty member of the Institute for Security Governance (ISG) at the Naval Post Graduate School, where I teach a course to foreign military officers on the role of coast guards in East and Southeast Asia.
My focus is on Asia-Pacific security and political affairs, with a particular focus on the foreign and security policies of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Indo-Pacific maritime security. I have over two decades of experience researching and leading projects for government and private clients on Asia-Pacific security issues and have published on the rise of coast guards in East and Southeast Asia, Chinese military modernization, and gray zone challenges in Asia. My articles have appeared in Naval War College Review, Asia Policy, The Diplomat, The National Interest, and Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), among others.
I worked at the RAND Corporation from 2011-22 as a Senior Policy Analyst. From 2019 to 2021, I was on detail at the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) as the Country Director for China, advising OSD on defense relations between the Department of Defense and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and on Indo-Pacific maritime security. Before joining RAND, I was the 2010–11 Next Generation Fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) and a research intern with the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
From 2004-08, I studied and worked in Beijing, China, studying Mandarin at the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies (IUP) at Tsinghua University and later working at Dentsu Advertising and the China Economist Journal.
I have a Master’s of International Affairs (MIA) from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA); a Certificate in East Asian Studies from Columbia's Weatherhead East Asian Institute; and BA in international business from Western Washington University.