Cynthia "Xanthi" Carras is the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). Ms. Carras is also the Principal Director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia since 2022. She served as the Director for Strategy, Economics, and Technology in the same office, supervising a team focused on developing and enabling the Defense Department’s strategic competition with China. She served as the Director for Plans and Operations in OSD Cyber Policy from 2014 to 2019, overseeing the staff charged with enabling the Department’s conduct of operations in cyberspace. From 2007 to 2014 Ms. Carras worked on the OSD China desk. She began her DoD career in 2005 as a Presidential Management Fellow.

Before joining the government, Ms. Carras worked as a marketing assistant at Desano, a Shanghai-based international trading company, and at Ruoy Chai International, a private PRC firm located in Beijing. Ms. Carras received her Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, and her Bachelor of Arts from Swarthmore College.