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In Conversation.

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"I've found that being willing to try new things, even if they involve risk, has made a big difference in my work."

Angel Padilla, MPA '13

Thomas Emens

Community Profile April 27, 2026

#PolicyProfile: Thomas Emens, MPA ’29

“As mayor of Jamesburg, NJ, I wake up every day thinking about how to make my hometown stronger. I was born and raised here, a small, blue-collar community without wealthy donors or endless resources—just hardworking people who care deeply about where they live. Public service, to me, isn’t politics. It’s about showing up, listening, and getting things done. I was elected to the Borough Council during my first semester as a transfer student at Princeton. A year later, I became Council President, and in 2024, after our mayor resigned, I stepped in as Acting Mayor while finishing my senior thesis. Today, I’m serving a two-year mayoral term focused on…

Cassandra Azumah, MPA ’27

Community Profile April 15, 2026

#PolicyProfile: Cassandra Azumah, MPA ’27

“Being from Ghana, my path to public policy has been shaped by working across countries, sectors, and institutions — and seeing firsthand what it takes to turn good ideas into lasting change. After graduating from the London School of Economics, I spent a year and a half at the South Centre in Geneva, exploring how countries in the Global South can learn from one another’s development experiences. From there, I moved to Senegal, where I worked with IDinsight on monitoring, evaluation, and learning strategies for education and health programs. I later returned to Ghana to support the Ministry of Education through Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA),…

Nudhara Yusuf

Community Profile March 27, 2026

#PolicyProfile: Nudhara Yusuf, MPA ’27

"I grew up between places and histories. My parents raised me in the United Kingdom and India. Growing up hearing stories about my grandfather, a political activist who lost his life advocating for the right to speak against injustice, inspires who I am as a person. When I got to university, I had this self-realization that the spaces where I felt most energized were those focused on politics and civic engagement. That path eventually led me to consult with the United Nations Development Program, which launched my career path. Being inside the U.N. showed me its importance and limitations. I became interested in how global institutions can evolve to…

Ayah Abdelwahab, MPA ’27

Community Profile February 24, 2026

#PolicyProfile: Ayah Abdelwahab, MPA ’27

“I grew up in Bogart, Georgia, in a working-class community just a few miles from the University of Georgia. That proximity meant I witnessed starkly different realities side by side. Our county has one of the highest rates of income inequality for its size, and seeing how disparities in access to education, health care, and jobs shaped people’s long-term outcomes was formative. As a first-generation American with family roots in Egypt, I also saw how barriers to basic needs — whether in Georgia or abroad — can undermine opportunity. Those experiences sparked my commitment to addressing inequities and expanding access to the economic foundations…

Siatta Gray

Community Profile February 11, 2026

#PolicyProfile: Siatta Gray, MPP ’26

“My passion for service is rooted in the belief that geography should never determine destiny — who lives, who thrives, or who gets to dream. Everyone deserves equal access to opportunity, health, and the freedom to become who they want to be. Coming from Liberia, I’ve witnessed firsthand the human cost of policy failures — from 14 years of civil war that shattered every fulcrum of society to the Ebola outbreak that exposed deep systemic inequities. I saw mothers bury children because facilities lack oxygen and families face an impossible trade-off between food or medicine. Those moments taught me that policy is not abstract — it is the difference…

Sam Anschell, MPA ’27

Community Profile January 12, 2026

#PolicyProfile: Sam Anschell, MPA ’27

“Some of humanity’s greatest welfare improvements have come from policy decisions — securing public funding for smallpox vaccines, advancing agricultural techniques to prevent famine, or banning lead contamination across a host of countries. As a grantmaker on Coefficient Giving’s Global Aid Policy program, I investigated grants to support think tanks, civil society organizations, and government affairs groups working to increase the scale and cost-effectiveness of wealthy governments’ foreign assistance. One component of my work involved bringing policymakers face-to-face with evidence-based programs. I joined delegations of Japanese and South…

Dayton Ashby, MPA ’27

Community Profile January 05, 2026

#PolicyProfile: Dayton Ashby, MPA ’27

“I entered college planning to study the world, but working in my own backyard in Mississippi ultimately changed my path and shifted my focus from diplomacy to the urgent reality of American poverty. I was born and raised in Mississippi, and attended @olemiss, where I earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies and political science. Early on, I imagined a career in public service but didn’t know where to focus my energies. As the pandemic reshaped both global and local priorities, I began to question where my impact would be most felt. Through the Grisham-McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement (grishammcleanum), I became…

Ranen Miao, MPA ’26

Community Profile November 20, 2025

#PolicyProfile: Ranen Miao, MPA ’26

“I’ve always had many different interests, but civil rights and economic justice are my core passions. I hope to build systems that treat every person with dignity, including closing the racial wealth gap, ensuring gender equality, and protecting LGBTQIA+ rights. I feel a personal connection to these issues, and I view them as fundamental problems we must address to realize the promise of the American Dream and opportunity for all people. In college, I tried to learn from every corner of the public sector, including through 13 internships about reproductive freedom, environmental justice, voting rights, and federal policymaking on the Hill. I interned…

Silvestri

Community Profile September 26, 2025

#PolicyProfile: Stephen Silvestri, MPA ’26

“I grew up in Groton, Massachusetts, as a second-generation American with family roots in China and Italy. From a young age, my cultural heritage shaped my worldview, sparking a passion for foreign languages, global affairs, and travel. Living and studying abroad in France and China further deepened my interest, which I sought to apply through national service. In 2019, I was commissioned as an Air Force intelligence officer and served on active duty until 2023. For a majority of that time, I was assigned to U.S. European Command. One of my most formative roles was leading a 24/7 team responsible for providing real-time updates and analysis on…

Austin Edwards, MPP ’23

Community Profile April 21, 2025

#PolicyProfile: Austin Edwards, MPP ’23

“After Princeton SPIA, I joined SandSJ NJ as a senior policy counsel. SandSJ is a Black-faith-rooted organization that works to liberate the Black community throughout New Jersey and transform public policy to uplift people throughout the state. We’re currently working to build a birthing center in Trenton and a few other places throughout New Jersey that are traditionally birthing deserts. We want to ensure that our citizens have a reliable place to safely give birth and have access to maternal health care, good midwives, and doulas. We're in the process of writing legislation and securing funding for midwives to staff the location, provide…

student

Community Profile April 04, 2025

#PolicyProfile: Vincent Jiang ’25

“Since I was young, I've always believed in the idea of service, being part of something greater, and helping other people in whatever way I can. That drive for service first pushed me in the direction of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), and it also pushed me towards majoring in SPIA. I strongly feel connected to the SPIA community and the community of scholars here, so I decided to run for the student advisory committee (SAC). I wanted to be an advocate for other people in a similar position to make improvements where I saw room for improvements. One program that I've been really heavily involved with on SAC is the Policy Pathways…

Gillian Tisdale

Community Profile July 01, 2024

#PolicyProfile: Gillian Tisdale, MPA '24

"I developed an interest in advocacy at a young age, attending my first protest at the age of 8. As a teenager, I became deeply involved in local LGBTQ+ organizations, including canvassing for signatures and running phone banks. Throughout college, I fundraised for organizations such as the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during summers and while on breaks.After graduating from Smith College, I launched a career in healthcare market strategy, seeking impactful ways to drive broader positive change. I am passionate about reproductive justice because I believe that full bodily autonomy is…

Justin Schuster, MPA ’24

Community Profile June 06, 2024

#PolicyProfile: Justin Schuster, MPA ’24

“Before coming to Princeton SPIA, I spent seven years covering foreign policy, conflict, and climate change in various media and editorial capacities. After majoring in global affairs and Middle Eastern studies as an undergraduate at Yale, I was fortunate to receive a postgraduate fellowship that allowed me to move to Amman, Jordan, for a year-long, upper-level Arabic program. What was originally just supposed to be a one-year commitment would ultimately turn into three and a half years in the region.I worked with a small, non-profit newsroom called Syria Direct, initially as a translator, then as a journalist reporting on the war in Syria, and…

Fernando Pernas, MPA '24

Community Profile May 10, 2024

#PolicyProfile: Fernando Pernas, MPA '24

My great-grandmother was one of the first female candidates for vice president in Latin America and navigated the perilous waters of politics and activism during a time of brutal political oppression. Driven by a deep-seated commitment to justice, free speech, and democratic principles, she consistently chose to do what she believed was right, regardless of the potential consequences. Her legacy has motivated me to pursue a career in civil service and to actively participate in transformative processes within the public sector. While studying economics at Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, I developed a passion for economic development,…

Ria Hanson

Community Profile May 02, 2024

#PolicyProfile: Ria Hanson, MPA ’24

“After graduating from Williams College with a degree in economics, I spent three summers commercial fishing in the Shelikof Strait off the western coast of Kodiak Island in Alaska. These were some of the worst fishing years that area had seen. We had weeks where we would watch huge runs of salmon swim right through our nets because the warming waters in the Pacific had stunted their growth to the point that they were too small to catch. I was also working as an economist with the State of Alaska at the time. It was a bit of an awakening to watch these salmon just swim away after fishermen spent months preparing for the season and then to go back to…