Jennifer Choo is the Director of Research and Strategy at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis (CCA). Prior to taking this position, she served in varying leadership roles at Stanford University for more than seven years, first as the Associate Director of the Stanford China Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (2016-2021) and then more recently as the Strategic Policy Advisor at the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions (SCCEI) (2021-2024). At Stanford, her role included not only advancing research projects on contemporary China, but also convening global thought leaders and “translating” complex ideas into accessible content for a sophisticated yet lay audience. In her last position at SCCEI, she played a key role in developing and launching the center’s flagship initiative, SCCEI China Briefs, which communicates data-intensive academic research on contemporary China to decisionmakers at the highest levels of government and business. Her current position at CCA also marks Choo’s return to Asia Society, as she served as Director of Programs at Asia Society Northern California from 2014 to 2016.
Choo received her Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley’s Sociology Department and also holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School. She has over 25 years of on-the-ground and U.S.-based experience involving China and wider Asia, conducting research, establishing partnerships, and convening international thought leaders.
Prior to her doctorate, she worked at The China Law Center (now the Paul Tsai China Center) of Yale Law School helping to collaborate on rule of law programs with various Chinese institutions. A Ford Foundation individual grant first took her to China in 1998 to work on rule of law initiatives. Choo is the recipient of the National Science Foundation Fellowship and the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Program. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University.
