Current MPA Students

Before coming to Princeton, Wonkyung worked at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris as a Young Associate. Her work focused on tackling discrimination and inequality through evidence-based policies. She contributed to key projects on anti-discrimination legislation across OECD countries and gender statistics in Egypt, while also serving as a liaison for the Norwegian delegation during the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting. Wonkyung holds a bachelor’s degree in economics with a minor in women’s studies from Ewha Womans University in South Korea. During her undergraduate years, she studied abroad in Norway and Canada, deepening her interest in international policy and social equity. At Princeton, she hopes to explore ways to secure sustainable funding mechanisms so that critical social policies can thrive – regardless of shifting political and economic conditions. She also looks forward to learning more about inclusive development. During the summer, she worked at the National Commission for Evaluation and Development (Comisión Nacional de Evaluación y Productividad) in Chile and conducted comparative policy research for the Chilean government for demographic change, including aging population, low fertility rate, and labor market participation. Born in Indiana and raised in Seoul, Wonkyung brings a cross-cultural perspective to her work. After graduation, she hopes to join an international organization such as the World Bank or Asian Development Bank to help countries design better social policies. In her free time, she enjoys birdwatching, spontaneous karaoke nights, and cooking – if you spot her on Karaoke night at D bar, don’t hesitate to say hi!

Soon Young received her bachelor’s in public administration from Sung Kyun Kwan University in South Korea. Since 2020, she has worked as a deputy director at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, where she has been primarily responsible for public budgeting and performance-based budgeting. In this role, she focused on enhancing fiscal responsibility and aligning resource allocation with outcomes that matter. Her professional experience has given her deep insight into how budgeting decisions are made in practice and how institutional structures influence the effectiveness of public policies. Building on this foundation, her academic interests now center on how to increase efficiency in public budgeting systems while simultaneously ensuring democratic accountability. Through graduate study, she hopes to gain a more interdisciplinary and comparative perspective on public finance systems. Soon Young spent the summer conducting research for the University of Georgia's Center for International Trade and Security as part of her MPA internship. Beyond her academic and professional pursuits, Soon Young is an avid photographer who enjoys capturing candid moments of everyday life. She also values personal wellness and maintains an active lifestyle through running and swimming. Most of all, she finds great meaning in connecting with people from diverse backgrounds and learning from their unique experiences and perspectives.

Born and raised in Kasoa, an exurb of Accra, Ghana, Donaldson's path to Princeton began when a childhood policy mandating disability integration in schools changed his life. As a visually impaired student, he experienced firsthand how thoughtful policy design expands opportunity – an insight that now drives his commitment to understanding why well-intentioned policies so often fail to deliver in African contexts. After earning his B.A. in political science and philosophy from the University of Ghana, Donaldson has worked at the intersection of institutional reform and inclusive development across management, administration, and organizational operations in both the public and private sectors. He led organizational turnarounds while securing infrastructure projects that expanded employment opportunities across Ghana and designed diversity initiatives that increased disability and female hiring, learning that effective institutional change requires building capacity rather than merely demanding compliance. He made history as Africa's first visually impaired GRE test-taker using accessible accommodations, an experience that inspired him to mentor other blind students navigating standardized testing. Passionate about educational inclusion, he championed the adoption of screen-reading technology to replace outdated braille-dependent systems for visually impaired students and has become an advocate for accessible technology in African education systems. After graduation, Donaldson hopes to work at the intersection of education reform, implementation science, and inclusive governance in Ghana before eventually establishing a policy institute focused on bridging the gap between policy design and delivery across Africa. He holds a simple belief: systems built to exclude can be redesigned to include, and those who navigate broken systems know where the fractures lie.

David is fascinated by how governance institutions must evolve to meet global needs amid profound technological and geopolitical change. Raised in Vernon Hills, Illinois, he received a dual degree in data science and international relations from American University and was a Boren Scholar in Kazakhstan. After graduating, he worked as a data and policy analyst at the MITRE Corporation, where he built computational models to identify transportation bottlenecks in the food supply chain, helped shape license plate reader policy, and contributed to reports on AI threats to critical infrastructure. He joins Princeton SPIA from Technomics, where, as a technical consultant, he developed program management strategies and dashboard tools for the Department of Energy. David hopes to translate his multidisciplinary experience into international political economy settings, bridging data and theory to produce analyses and strategies that advance abundance.

Ellie has worked across politics and policy to advance evidence-informed solutions that prioritize the needs of vulnerable communities. Most recently, she served as Senior Communications, Policy, and Research Associate to the Global Executive Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), where she helped shape organizational strategy and advised public and private sector partners on applying research to real-world challenges. A graduate of Brigham Young University, Ellie’s early experiences as a political aide, writer, and educator sparked her commitment to bridging the gap between well-meaning policy and lived experience. This past summer, she interned with the Project Resource Optimization team at the DIV Fund in Boston, Massachusetts. At SPIA, she plans to focus on climate adaptation and poverty reduction, building the tools to help governments and multilaterals scale effective, locally grounded solutions.