Radha Iyengar Plumb

Some Lesser Known Facts About Radha Iyengar Plumb

• Radha Iyengar Plumb is an Indian-American economist who made headlines in June 2022 US President Joe Biden nominated her for the top Pentagon post of Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment.

• She started her career in August 2006 when she joined Harvard University as RWJ Health Policy Scholar in Cambridge.

• From August 2008 to August 2011, she worked as an assistant professor at the London School of Economics (LSE), England. Meanwhile, she also worked as an academic advisor at CAAT (2010-2011).

• From October 2011 to May 2012, she worked as an economist at the research organization RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, CA.

• From May 2012 to September 2013, she held the position of Chief of Staff and Policy Advisor to the Assistant Secretary at the Pentagon, the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense.

• In September 2013, she assumed the position of Director of Defense Personnel, Readiness, and Partnerships at the National Security Council, The White House.

• From October 2014 to October 2015, She served as the Deputy Chief of Staff in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), where she headed the policy processes, including budget and policy reviews related to modernizing nuclear infrastructure and efforts to improve energy sector safety and stability.

• In October 2015, she rejoined RAND Corporation as a senior economist. At the RAND Corporation, her main objective was to improve the measurement and evaluation of readiness and security measures in the Department of Defense. The senior economist served as lead author on a number of crucial reports which included assessing the implications of open service of Transgender Service members and reviewing security and suitability screening efforts.

• After the 2016 presidential election, she started co-hosting a national-security podcast called ‘Bombshell’ along with Erin Simpson and Loren DeJonge. She has also hosted the podcasts Smart Women, Smart Power (2014) and Rational Security (2015).

• In September 2017, she joined Facebook (now Meta) as Research Lead on User Safety and Risk Management (UX) in Menlo Park, California. After a year, she was promoted to Head of Product-Policy Research. After being promoted to Global Head of Policy Analysis in August 2019, she worked in the position for seven months.

• She left Facebook to join Google in San Francisco Bay Area as Director, Trust & Safety – Research and Insights.

• After working at Google for a year, she started working as the Chief Of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H Hicks in February 2021.

• During her government service, she played a significant role in minimizing sexual assaults, suicide prevention, developing budgets and policies related to nuclear and energy infrastructure security and resilience, and regulating counterterrorism efforts in the Middle East and North Africa. She was instrumental in evaluating stabilization operations in Afghanistan.

• On 15 June 2022, Radha Iyengar Plumb came into the limelight when Joe Biden announced her name as a nominee for the key Pentagon position of deputy undersecretary of defence for acquisition and sustainment.

• She is one of the nine authors of the book ‘Availability of Family Violence Services for Military Service Members and Their Families,’ published by RAND Corporation in January 2020.

• In an interview, she revealed that former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict Michael Sheehan and former Deputy Secretary at the Department of Energy Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall were her mentors and have helped and guided her throughout her career.

• In 2020, she created a fundraiser for the non-profit agency RAICES, which promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families, and refugees.