Current MPA Students

Katie is a joint MPA/J.D. student at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and Yale Law School. She was born and raised in Bellevue, Washington, and studied psychology at Duke University. She was a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant at a rural teachers’ college in Ixtapan de la Sal, Mexico. After returning from Mexico, Katie helped manage ten in-house pro bono legal clinics at the University of North Carolina School of Law. She interpreted and translated for 80 Spanish-speaking clients, organized the CARES Act Eviction Information Line to help undocumented tenants, and helped establish the Adult Parole Project. She later served as the community education coordinator for the Farmworker Unit at Legal Aid of North Carolina, where she coordinated know-your-rights trainings for migrant, seasonal, and H-2A farmworkers. In that role, she developed outreach strategies to reach prospective clients with limited literacy, with limited digital literacy, and who speak Indigenous languages. Outside of work, she volunteered with Al Otro Lado, Respond Crisis Translation, and the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. Katie was the 2020–2021 recipient of the Hillary Rodham Clinton Award for Peace and Reconciliation at Queen’s University Belfast. There, she researched the intersection of immigration law and technology, the role of women in peacebuilding in Northern Ireland, and the treatment of speakers of Indigenous languages at the U.S.-Mexico border. Katie is interested in policy approaches to increasing access to justice. She speaks fluent Spanish, intermediate French, and basic Maya Mam. In her free time, she enjoys playing board games, reading investigative reporting, and singing in her church choir.

Manuel was born and raised in Cusco, Peru, and later earned his bachelor's degree in economics from Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. For over seven years before SPIA, he worked in Peru’s public sector, holding roles across education, social policy, banking, and central planning agencies, where he applied economic analysis and data science techniques, and engaged with technical and political stakeholders at all levels to generate valuable insights for diverse public policies. In recent years, he served in his country’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, leading efforts to strengthen results-based budgeting and approaching the public sector through a cross-sectoral lens to promote efficiency and evidence-based policymaking. He is committed to advancing much-needed institutional reforms in Peru and Latin America to bring quality public services closer to the most vulnerable populations, within a framework of environmental sustainability and digital transformation. Upon completing the MPA, he looks forward to serving either as a senior official within Peru’s central government or in an advisory role at an international institution. Manuel enjoys dabbling in team sports, delving into cultural history, and binge-watching dystopian tales and suspenseful thrillers.

Maya was raised in the Chicagoland area and Mumbai, India. She attended Harvard College and graduated with a joint concentration in History of Science and French, and a minor in Chemistry. She is passionate about education and worked as a peer tutor and with local low-income middle schoolers during college. After graduating, she worked as a language assistant in France and the French Caribbean for two years, teaching French students English, and American and Indian history. Maya is interested in education, socioeconomic inequality, and sustainable energy, and is especially passionate about expanding access to education as a mode of social change. She is a 2025 Rangel Fellow and will work as a Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State after her studies at SPIA.

Annie is from Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and graduated from Georgetown University with a B.A. in Economics. After graduating in 2022, she worked in government relations and policy consulting, focusing on global health and trade policy across Latin America and the Asia-Pacific. Through public-private partnerships in regional economic fora, Annie led projects aimed at advancing women’s economic empowerment, particularly access to sexual and reproductive health services and the recognition of unpaid caregiving in health systems. After Princeton, she hopes to pursue a career in global health diplomacy, advancing policies that promote health equity and strengthen health systems. In her free time, Annie enjoys grounding activities like sudoku and yoga, as well as getting lost in a good short story.

Originally from San Francisco, Fiona received her B.A. at the University of Chicago, in Law, Letters, and Society, with a minor in Democracy Studies. At UChicago, she participated in research projects on American political violence with the Chicago Project on Security and Threats, and did work on comparative democratic backsliding with the Democratic Erosion Consortium. She was a 2023-24 James Gaither Junior Fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C., where she did research in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program on the intersection of technology, trade, and democracy. Prior to SPIA, Fiona worked as an international trade specialist at McDermott Will and Emery. At Princeton, she hopes to examine the impact of changing U.S. trade and economic policy on international politics and democracy (and also hopes to camp, hike, and explore the Garden State!).