Current Students

Born and raised in New York City, Caroline Crystal graduated with a B.A. in Global Affairs and History from Yale University. After a yearlong fellowship in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Caroline spent two years at the primary implementing partner for the State Department’s Conflict Observatory Program using open-source information and satellite imagery analysis to document potential violations of international law and to support humanitarian field teams in Ukraine and Sudan. Most recently, Caroline worked for the DEVELOP National Program at NASA’s Ames Research Center, where she used earth observations to monitor air pollution and associated public health outcomes, and she is currently a NASA Lifelines Fellow. Outside of the classroom, Caroline enjoys morning park walks, science and nature podcasts, and trying to cook new foods.

Mously is a consultant with the Gates Foundation in Senegal, where she provides technical assistance to the Ministry of Education on the MOHEBS program, a national initiative aimed at improving foundational learning outcomes. Her work focuses on strengthening systems and ensuring effective implementation through data-driven strategies and close government collaboration. Before this role, Mously served as a Program Associate at the Education Outcomes Fund, a UNICEF-hosted fund where she coordinated the technical design of a results-based financing program in Tunisia to support youth employment and contributed to early childhood education reforms in South Africa. Previously, she was a Senior Associate at IDinsight, where she led evaluations and system-level research across West and North Africa. Mously’s portfolio included designing a national decision-making dashboard for the Moroccan government, assessing COVID-19’s effects on education in multiple countries, and evaluating remedial learning programs in Senegal. Mously holds a B.A. in Statistical Science from Cornell University. She brings strong cross-sectoral experience at the intersection of education, labor, and data systems. Mously is committed to African-led development and evidence-based policymaking. Her approach prioritizes deep contextual understanding and locally grounded solutions that reflect national priorities, institutional realities, and long-term sustainability. She believes that true impact comes from empowering local actors and designing programs that align with a country’s vision for its own development.

Elizabeth is from Bellingham, Washington, and studied economics and political science at Middlebury College. In 2021, Elizabeth moved to Haiti to coordinate a research project on social networks and small‐scale corruption in the Haitian Ministries, a collaboration between the University of Chicago and the Inter-American Development Bank. She later became a Reporting Officer within the United Nations’ Political Mission in Haiti, where she managed, analyzed, and published data on gang‐related human rights abuses. The summer after her first year at Princeton, Elizabeth interned at World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group in Washington, D.C. and worked as a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank’s Institutional Capacity of the State (ICS) division. She aspires to be a development practitioner working at the intersection of operations and analysis, with a focus on helping weak states strengthen their social contracts and combat crime, corruption, and violence.

Behdad is originally from Iran and before pursuing graduate education, he was dedicated to driving social impact through evidence-based policymaking and public awareness in Iran. As the co-founder of the influential Sekke Podcast, with over 100,000 subscribers, he fostered informed discussions on critical economic and development issues. In his role as Head of the Department of Education at the Tehran Economic Policy-making Think-tank (TEPT) at the University of Tehran, Behdad enabled impactful research and provided high-quality education on applied economics and development. During his internship at SPIA, he gained international experience at the World Bank, contributing to poverty and equity research and policy dissemination projects in Latin America. He holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Tehran. Upon graduation, Behdad plans to work on the challenges that developing countries face in reducing poverty.

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.