Radha Plumb

The Honorable Radha Iyengar Plumb, PhD, has extensive leadership experience at the senior most levels of government, industry, and academia. In addition to being a distinguished visiting fellow at Perry World House, she is a senior fellow at the Wharton Accountable Artificial Intelligence Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. Previously, she served as the Department of Defense Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer. In that role she led the Pentagon’s AI, data, and analytics adoption efforts, and created innovative pathways to acquire and scale digital technology across the Department of Defense.  Her other government roles include deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, the number 2 official overseeing procurement, logistics, maintenance, and Industrial Base Policy. Prior to that role she served as chief of staff to the deputy secretary of defense, and in senior staff roles at the Department of Energy and National Security Council.  In industry, she was director of research & insights for trust & safety at Google and global head of policy analysis at Facebook, leading data-driven security, reliability, and transparency related work to improve products and business operations. Earlier in her career she was a senior economist at the RAND Corporation and an assistant professor at the London School of Economics. She holds a PhD in economics from Princeton and a BS from MIT.