Ms. Phu is a senior executive in the Department of Defense who currently serves as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD).  She has been in OSD since 2000 when she started as a Presidential Management Fellow.

Ms. Phu has held a number of other senior positions throughout the Department of Defense, including Principal Director for Cyber Policy; Assistant Professor of National Security Policy and Strategy and OSD Chair at the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy at the National Defense University (NDU), and Principal Director for the Secretariat for Special Operations, responsible for providing oversight of the organization, training, and equipping of special operations forces.  Ms. Phu has also served on the National Security Council (NSC) Staff twice, most recently as Director for Southeast Asia, Oceania, and East Asian Security Affairs in 2013-2015.  She was previously Director for Southeast Asia on the NSC Staff in 2007-2009.  In addition to her government positions, Ms. Phu was also previously an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.

Ms. Phu is a graduate of the Eisenhower School, where she earned a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy and was awarded the Commandant’s Award for Excellence in Research in Writing.  Ms. Phu also has a Master of Pacific International Affairs with a focus on Southeast Asia from the Graduate School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego.  She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with high honors from the University of California, Berkeley.  Ms. Phu was a Council of Foreign Relations Term Member and is currently a member of Pacific Council on International Policy.