Deputy Assistant Administrator Anka Lee oversees the Office of Development Cooperation (ODC) and Communications team in the Bureau for Planning, Learning and Resource Management (PLR). During the first two years of the Administration, Mr. Lee also served as the Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Bureau of Policy Planning and Learning, and USAID’s Senior Advisor on the People’s Republic of China (PRC), leading and coordinating global strategy and efforts relating to the PRC across the Agency. Before coming to USAID, he was a Global Policy Manager at WhatsApp, the world’s largest private messaging app.
From 2017-2020, Mr. Lee served as Director of International Relations at the California State Assembly, leading the legislature’s engagement with foreign leaders, and advising Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon on international issues relevant to California. He also created new bilateral initiatives with the governments of Mexico, Canada, Japan, and Germany to empower state elected officials to address shared policy challenges with foreign counterparts. Before returning home to California, he was Senior Director for China at Albright Stonebridge Group, a Washington, DC-based global strategy firm, where he advised the firm’s co-chairs – former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former National Security Adviser Samuel Berger, and former Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez – on developments in China and East Asia. He also worked closely with C-suite executive clients to navigate political and regulatory landscapes and build relationships in overseas markets.
His work in international affairs also included stints as an intelligence analyst studying the security dynamics in the Asia Pacific for the U.S. military; as a Congressional staffer advising members on human rights and rule of law issues in China; and, as a journalist covering democratic movements and politics in Asia. Before working in foreign affairs, Mr. Lee was a political reporter in California and served as a legislative aide at the California Legislature.
His written and on-air commentaries have appeared in The Atlantic, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, Just Security, Foreign Policy, NBC News, POLITICO, Time, and San Francisco Chronicle. He is a Fellow and former Co-Lead of the Asia Expert Group at the Truman National Security Project. A first-generation college graduate, Mr. Lee received his BA in American politics from the University of California, Berkeley, and his MA in East Asia Regional Studies from Harvard University. He is a native speaker of Cantonese.