Speakers

The Honorable Radha Iyengar Plumb, Ph.D. is a technology and national security leader with extensive experience at the highest levels of government, industry, and academia. 

Dr. Plumb is currently a Senior Fellow at the Wharton Accountable AI Lab and Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania. In these roles, she brings her technology and Pentagon expertise together with University of Pennsylvania’s academic expertise to address global policy challenges, fostering international engagement, interdisciplinary research, and critical dialogue to develop innovative policy solutions and prepare students for global leadership. 

In her most recent position at the Pentagon, Dr. Plumb served as the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer (CDAO) at the Department of Defense (DoD), where she led AI, data, and analytics adoption efforts, driving innovative strategies to scale digital technology across the Pentagon. 

Previously, Dr. Plumb served as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (A&S), the second-highest official overseeing procurement, logistics, maintenance, and industrial base policy. She was also Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, serving as her lead advisor on the reform of the Defense Innovation Unit, the Replicator initiative, and Deputy’s Management Action Group (DMAG), the principal forum for civilian and military leaders to address major budgetary, management, strategy, and policy issues. 

During the Obama Administration, Dr. Plumb held senior roles at the National Security Council and the Department of Energy, shaping critical national security and technology policies. 

In the private sector, Dr. Plumb was Director of Research & Insights for Trust & Safety at Google and Global Head of Policy Analysis at Facebook, where she led data-driven initiatives to enhance security, reliability, and transparency. Earlier in her career, she was a senior economist at the RAND Corporation and an assistant professor at the London School of Economics. 

Dr. Plumb holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University and a B.S. from MIT. Her career reflects a deep commitment to leveraging data, technology, and policy to drive national security and innovation.