Current MPA Students

Born and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts, Sonia graduated from New York University with a B.A. in public policy and French. After graduating, she taught English to high schoolers in France. Upon moving back to the U.S., Sonia worked for New York State Senator Julia Salazar, most recently as Director of Legislative Research and Policy. In this position, she helped write and pass the most comprehensive prison reform legislation in a decade, groundbreaking protections for tenants, and more. In early 2026, Sonia co-authored “Built on Brutality,” a first-of-its-kind report that found that New York State prisons regularly abuse incarcerated individuals and disregard state law. Additionally, she built out and implemented education programming on civics, policies, and state politics, as well as organized against unjust landlords. After Princeton, Sonia hopes to advocate and write policy for and with those most impacted by the criminal legal system to ensure that everyone has access to equitable and just care and services. In her free time, Sonia enjoys climbing, baking complicated desserts, and reading.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Karl is excited to return to the Garden State after stints in Nashville, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C. Karl graduated from Vanderbilt University with a double major in Economics and Public Policy Studies. While in school, he spent over a year exploring local government as an intern in the Nashville Finance Department. After graduation, Karl worked as a Research Assistant at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors for three years as a member of the Stress Testing section within the Division of Supervision and Regulation. Here, he supported the Stress Testing program through his preparation of briefing materials and his work toward improving model accuracy in the face of changing accounting standards. Both at Vanderbilt and the Federal Reserve, Karl has demonstrated his passion for economics and personal finance education through his leadership of volunteer organizations that strive to make these topics more accessible to high school students. At Princeton, Karl is looking forward to honing his understanding of public finance and applying that understanding to a range of policy areas. He spent his MPA1 summer with the New Jersey Governor’s office as a member of their Strategic Initiatives and Economic Opportunity team. As a member of this team, Karl worked to improve housing affordability and reduce permitting timelines across various state agencies. Outside of the classroom, he plans to continue his quest to find the perfect sandwich, a quest hopefully made easier by New Jersey's famed density of delis and diners.

Born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey, Tunç holds a bachelor’s degree in linguistics from Boğaziçi University where he served as the President of the Undergraduate Student Council during his senior year. He spent his junior year of high school in Massachusetts with the U.S. State Department’s Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange Program and completed his study abroad semester at Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to Princeton, Tunç worked at Kale Group of Companies, one of Turkey’s largest industrial groups, supporting the company’s corporate, public, and international affairs along with coordinating Kale Foundation’s international initiatives, working directly with senior leadership. Before that he was at Koç Holding where he was tasked with a similar role. Tunç has volunteered for different causes including intercultural exchange and dialogue, environmental protection, and promotion of sustainable development goals. He returned to Turkey to complete his MPA internship at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Istanbul. At Princeton, he hopes to further his understanding of the relationship between development, regime types, and foreign policy. Tunç is pursuing a joint MPA/MBA with the Stanford Graduate School of Business and is in residence at Stanford for the 2026 spring semester. 

Originally from India and the U.K., Nudhara was formerly Executive Coordinator of the Global Governance Innovation Network at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C., and previously worked on the Sustainable Development Goals and Strategic Foresight with the United Nations Development Program. She has supported both Indian state welfare ministers in designing social inclusion programs at the grassroots, and the British Shadow Secretary of State for Justice in U.K.’s Parliament. Her interests primarily lie in reform and evolution of the multilateral system and how coalitions can be mobilized around change and accountability. In this vein, she served as Co-Chair of the U.N. Civil Society Conference in Support of the Summit of the Future, and Co-founded Coalition for the U.N. We Need which is now a 7000-member NGO network working on U.N. reform. At SPIA, Nudhara serves as a Global Governance Fellow with LISD and Environmental Policy Associate with C-PREE. Over the summer, she worked with the U.N. Accounts and Global Public Policy teams at Ernst & Young in both Geneva and New York to support the firm on their engagements and position in multilateral forums. When she is not losing sleep over the future of multilateralism, you’ll find her chasing a new side-quest hobby or complaining about how mangos taste so much better back home in Chennai. After SPIA, she hopes to return to working on the future of the U.N. system, and helping it navigate new economic environments.

Originally from Michigan, Katie grew up in New York and Maryland. Most recently, Katie served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Fiji, supporting community economic development. Katie worked closely with iTaukei youth and women to translate locally-driven priorities into the design and implementation of community projects centered around economic empowerment and income generation. In partnership with organizations including the World Bank, U.N. Development Programme, USAID, and the Australian High Commission, Katie facilitated initiatives at the local and national level, advancing food security, climate resilience, and institutional capacity for inclusive socioeconomic growth. Katie’s time in Fiji cemented her commitment to a career in public service rooted in community engagement, cultural awareness, and social impact. At Princeton, she hopes to deepen her understanding of what evidence-based development and sustainable policy change truly entails. After graduating from SPIA, Katie plans to work in development and gender policy, with a focus on women’s economic empowerment. Before her transition to public service, Katie spent five years in San Francisco as a management consultant working on large-scale domestic and international digital transformations, with experience in program management, operating model design, digital and product strategy, and organizational change management in multicultural settings. Katie holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics and a minor in consumer psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. She loves photography, hut-to-hut hiking, painting, running, and watching movies.