Meet Tonia Bui - Founder of PWP Strategies

Tonia Bui is a communications strategist and public engagement professional with nearly two decades of experience across government, advocacy, political, and public affairs spaces. Her work focuses on developing community-centered messaging, outreach, and engagement strategies that help organizations better connect with the audiences they are trying to reach.

Throughout her career, Tonia has specialized in outreach to historically underrepresented communities, including women, Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, communities of color, and immigrant populations. Her experience spans political campaigns, government stakeholder engagement, advocacy initiatives, media relations, and public-facing communications strategies.

Tonia began her political career during the 2008 election cycle working on a congressional field operation in Washington state before joining the U.S. House Democratic Caucus under the leadership of then-Vice Chair Xavier Becerra. In that role, she supported communications and outreach efforts designed to strengthen engagement with Asian American, African American, and Latino communities nationwide.

Since her time on Capitol Hill, Tonia has led communications, outreach, and engagement efforts across federal, state, and local initiatives. Her public affairs work has included communications strategy, media engagement, grassroots mobilization, multilingual outreach, and coalition-building efforts designed to increase visibility, engagement, and public participation for political campaigns.

In addition to her political and advocacy work, Tonia spent nearly five years as a senior consultant for a federal government contracting firm, supporting stakeholder engagement and external communications efforts for agencies including the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s FirstNet Authority, and the Office of Emergency Communications at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Her broader communications experience also includes work with Montgomery County Public Schools, nonprofit organizations, and public officials at the local, state, and federal levels.

Beyond serving as founder & managing director of PWP Strategies, Tonia continues to support civic and political engagement efforts as chair of the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA) of Montgomery County and a trainer for the Asian Pacific American Leadership Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) Regional Leadership Academy.

Tonia previously served on the Montgomery County Commission for Women, including one executive term as 2nd Vice President. Tonia holds a Master of Public Policy from American University and dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Mass Communications and Gender & Women’s Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.