Lois L. Fu, Vice President for Public Policy, Independent Sector

New job: Ms. Fu, 58, this month started work at Independent Sector, a Washington coalition of charities and grant makers.

Last job: Top adviser at the National Academy of Public Administration, where she helped to devise ideas on reducing the national debt.

Previous roles: She served as a senior adviser at the Federal Transit Administration; the staff director of a Senate subcommittee; and a senior policy officer at the American Red Cross.

What her jobs have had in common: “They all confirm my status as a policy wonk,” Ms. Fu says. ”I like the thinking that being a policy wonk requires – looking at problems, coming up with new ways of thinking about issues, considering how different changes would have different impacts.”

Education: Ms. Fu earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s in public-policy studies from the University of Michigan. She also completed some postgraduate work in economics at George Washington University.

Her agenda: She says she will continue Independent Sector’s work to advance policies that help charities and foundations, favorable to philanthropy and the nonprofit fieldsector such as those that encourage charitable giving and volunteering. Her office will also examine questions about how the current debate over federal laws should that define charity tax-exempt status, and work to educate nonprofit groups about advocacy and lobbying.

Salary: She declined to reveal it.

Recent reading: For work: Powered by Coalition: The Story of Independent Sector, by Brian O’Connell. For fun: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson. Because her book group told her to: The Mayor of Casterbridge, by Thomas Hardy.