Robin Bush

Country Representative, Malaysia

Dr. Robin Bush is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Malaysia, where she oversees programs in support of Malaysia’s inclusive economic growth. She is also the co-lead for The Asia Foundation’s Future Skills Alliance (FSA) – a collective impact model for digital and future skilling to improve access for women and underserved communities to the digital economy across Asia.  Bush has over twenty-seven years of experience in governance and policy reform as well as academic expertise in Southeast Asia. She specializes in programming related to inclusive economic growth, evidence-based policymaking, and political economy analysis. 

Robin’s career has been a blend of practitioner and academic pursuits. She was previously with The Asia Foundation from 1998 to 2011 in Indonesia, holding a range of roles, including country representative and deputy country representative. Prior to this, she was The Asia Foundation’s regional director for Islam and Development, responsible for assisting Foundation offices Asia-wide in developing civil society, education, and anti-poverty programs implemented in collaboration with religious organizations. Robin also filled a number of strategic positions for RTI International in Jakarta, from 2014 to 2018. In her role as director of RTI’s Asia Regional office, she built relationships with the private sector, government, and university partners to strategically raise RTI’s profile in the region. She also served as team leader for the DFAT-funded Knowledge Sector Initiative, a partnership with the Indonesian government to strengthen Indonesia’s knowledge sector. Robin also helped to develop RTI’s engagement strategy with Malaysia, traveling back and forth between Jakarta and Malaysia to develop initial networks and set-up RTI’s office in Kuala Lumpur.

As an academic, from 2019 to 2021 Robin was adjunct faculty at the Singapore Management University, where she designed and taught courses in the School of Social Sciences addressing topics as diverse as Religion & Policy, Evidence-based Policymaking, and Southeast Asian history and politics. She was also senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Asia Research Institute from 2012 to 2014, where she was part of a team leading a research project on religion and development in Asia. Robin co-edited a book entitled Religion and the Politics of Development: Critical Perspectives on Asia featuring the results of that project. She is the author of Nahdlatul Ulama and the Struggle for Power in Islam and Politics in Indonesia and myriad journal articles and book chapters related to religion, politics, governance, and development.

Doctoral degree in Political Science from the University of Washington, master's degree in International Affairs from Ohio University, bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of South Carolina

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