Current MPA Students

Sophia was born and raised in El Salvador and finished high school in Dallas, Texas. She was a Forty Acres Scholar at the University of Texas at Austin where she focused on Latin America, international political economy, and natural resource management. Sophia engaged in faculty research projects on democracy in Texas and beyond while balancing community engagement in service organizations including a refugee awareness group and UT’s oldest women’s honorary service society. Sophia then worked with Ernst and Young as an anti-money laundering and regulatory compliance analyst. Once the COVID-19 pandemic subsided, Sophia lived and worked in Paraguay for almost three years, serving as an environmental education Peace Corps Volunteer. During her service, she worked closely with high school teachers at her rural site, developing and delivering tailored lessons and programs, including interdisciplinary permaculture garden projects. She extended her service by almost six months to work closely with a local sustainable development organization and to continue providing support to fellow PCVs. Sophia is passionate about sustainable development, environmental governance, and climate-forward strategies applied in the Latin American context. After SPIA, she plans to pursue meaningful work in these fields while fostering strong community connections. Sophia enjoys gardening, cooking, making things with her hands, and spending time with friends in nature.

Allen is a joint MPA/J.D. candidate who has focused his career on working in government at the confluence of technology, national security, and American competitiveness. He was most recently at the State Department, where he served as an analyst in the Bureau for International Security and Nonproliferation. In that role, he worked to preserve and extend U.S. leadership in critical technologies by supporting the development of export controls on semiconductors and AI and negotiations with partner countries on aligning critical technology protections. Allen previously served as a policy advisor in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he supported development of the Biden Administration’s Executive Order on AI, coordinated biotechnology policy initiatives, and managed implementation of provisions in the CHIPS and Science Act and Inflation Reduction Act. He joined the civil service after college, working at the General Services Administration’s Technology Modernization Fund to strengthen the federal government’s technology infrastructure in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and emerging cybersecurity threats. Born and raised in central Connecticut, Allen attended the University of Oxford, where he completed a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics with First Class Honors in 2020. Allen enjoys hosting dinner parties, cycling, constructing crossword puzzles, and taking long train rides.

Thomas is an active duty U.S. Army officer with a decade of combat arms and special operations experience and previous assignments in Europe and the Indo-Pacific. His interests include irregular warfare, international diplomacy, and intersectionality between revolutionary violence and culture. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 2016 with a B.S. in Literature, where he also competed on the West Point triathlon team. While informally retired from competing, Thomas still loves a challenging workout. His other past-times include reading and cooking for friends and family, and he is looking forward to sharing a good meal with his new Princeton teammates.

Jared’s dedication to public service began in his home state of Rhode Island. His leadership in his local Jewish community led to an interest in advocacy and public policy. He studied Economics at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where his honors theses received publication for its novel findings of the Clean Air Act reducing race-based disparities in PM2.5 exposure. When the pandemic interrupted school, Jared dove full-time into community organizing in the Twin Cities; first, promoting Latino voter engagement and environmental justice at COPAL MN, then as a field organizer for the Biden Campaign and the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL). Jared began his professional career as an Assistant Analyst at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in the Microeconomic Studies Division. His published work includes modeling effects of policies related to climate change adaptation, natural disasters, permitting reform, and R&D and innovation. Upon leaving the CBO, he spent the summer enjoying his favorite pastime: exploring New England’s public lands with his wife. Following his studies at Princeton, he hopes to work on state and federal budgets to promote thriving communities, environments, and economies.

Born and raised in the Ozark foothills, Brice is interested in reproductive health policy, especially as it relates to health access in rural communities. She earned a bachelor’s degree in human biology from Stanford University in 2022, and, before joining Princeton SPIA, spent two years as a health educator in Chicago school-based health clinics.