Theresa Lou is an Associate Vice President on the Geopolitics and Research team at The Asia Group. She advises clients on geopolitical, economic, and regulatory developments across the Indo-Pacific, offering strategic insights into regional risks and opportunities.
Theresa most recently served as Senior Policy Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, where she led on Indo-Pacific policy, strategic competition, and emerging technologies. In this role, she helped shape multilateral strategies and engagements related to U.S.-Japan-ROK trilateral cooperation, competition with China, and other U.S. regional priorities.
Prior to her service in the Biden administration, Theresa was the Democratic Staff Director for the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, where she advised Members of Congress on geopolitical, economic, and security developments. She led the Subcommittee’s legislative strategy for the region and helped enact four bills into law, including efforts to counter PRC economic coercion, enhance U.S. diplomatic and development resourcing, and strengthen people-to-people ties. Theresa was also a Research Associate at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she worked on improving multilateral responses to transnational threats. Her work has been published in Foreign Affairs, The Diplomat, World Politics Review, and other outlets.
Theresa holds both an M.A. in Security Studies and a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. She is a native Mandarin Chinese speaker, an avid traveler, and a yogi.