Vivian Y. Chu

Vivian Y. Chu is a research specialist on CNA's Safety and Security team. She has worked on a variety of interagency projects with the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Department of Health and Human Services, from criminal justice training and technical assistance to policy and strategy development to preparedness, response, and recovery exercises. Chu has undertaken project management, proposal development, exercise planning and evaluation, research, analysis, and facilitation duties over the course of her four years of relevant work experience.

In her most recent role, she is supporting the Bureau of Justice Assistance Smart Policing Initiative (SPI). In this capacity, Chu is part of a team that supports law enforcement agencies across the nation in implementing innovative evidence-based policing practices. She supports this initiative by providing technical and analytical support as well as overseeing and developing the SPI website. In addition to her work on SPI, Chu supported policy and strategy development efforts at the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Policy. She provided research and analytical support to intradepartmental air, land, and maritime domain awareness strategic requirements planning. Chu has also provided evaluation and analytical support to a number of exercise series, including the FEMA National Level Exercise 2011; the HHS Dark Zephyr, COOP and APHIS exercises; and the District of Columbia hurricane response exercise. For each of these exercises, she supported evaluation in the planning and after action phases. She has also worked on federal and state preparedness planning for pandemic influenza and volunteer management.

Prior to joining CNA, Chu worked as a research assistant for a computer science (CS) public policy office in D.C. where she provided qualitative and quantitative analysis to the scientific community and policy makers in efforts to improve the awareness of the following CS issues: education, data privacy/security, digital government, electronic voting, and web accessibility. She has four years of technical scientific and analytical experience ranging from computer forensics at HHS, biological forensics at the FBI, and scientific analysis/research at a private sector company and universities. While at the FBI, she received the 2008 FBI Laboratory Division Certification of Recognition aware for her exceptional contributions to the FBI’s forensic science research initiatives.

Education

• P.S.M., Molecular Biotechnology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, 2010
• B.S., Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of California, Davis, 2006

Publication

• Ehrhardt, Christopher J., Vivian Chu, et al. "Use of Fatty Acid Methyl Ester Profiles for Discrimination of Bacillus Cereus T-Strain Spores Grown on Different Media." APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY 76.6 (2010): 1902-912. Print.