Current Students

Jess grew up in Brisbane, Australia before moving to Sydney to work as an economist at the Reserve Bank of Australia. Starting in February 2020, she was quickly thrown in the deep-end of policymaking during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has worked in the RBA's IMF team, informing its position on international issues; produced forecasts and scenario analyses using macroeconomic models; and, most recently, analysed the transmission of monetary policy tightening to the real economy via financial markets. She spent most of the summer preparing for the move (AKA rewatching the Real Housewives of New Jersey...), but did manage a week's holiday in California on the way over. At Princeton SPIA, she looks forward to learning from her multidisciplinary peers and exploring her interest in international finance and development.

Thomas is a Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative (SINSI) Graduate Fellow. One of the youngest elected officials in New Jersey, he currently serves as Council President of Jamesburg, New Jersey, and briefly held the position of Acting Mayor in 2024. Elected to the Borough Council in November 2022 during his first semester at Princeton, his work has focused on infrastructure improvements, departmental reforms, and working with state and federal partners to secure resources for Jamesburg. A longtime advocate for public institutions, he has served as a trustee of the Jamesburg Public Library since he was 17 and spearheaded its revitalization. Thomas also chairs the Borough Council’s Personnel, Environmental, and Buildings and Grounds Committees. He was previously a member of the Electoral Processes Team at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) in Stockholm, Sweden, contributing to projects on global election observation and constitution building. As the 2024 Gilbert S. Omenn ’61 and Martha A. Darling MPA ’70 SINSI Intern Scholar, Thomas was a member of the Community Jobs and Justice Team in the Loan Programs Office at the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C., where he contributed to the team’s implementation of Biden Administration initiatives aimed at uplifting disadvantaged communities through clean energy investments. A member of Princeton’s fifth cohort of transfer students, Thomas holds a bachelor’s degree in Politics from Princeton and associate’s degree in liberal arts, highest honors, from Middlesex County College. On campus, he was the President of the Princeton Transfer Association.

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.

A Katy, Texas native, Anna has spent her career in public service working to achieve a more equitable and just society for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. After graduating from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Special Education, a minor in psychology, and a graduate certificate in nonprofit management, Anna joined the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) in Washington, D.C. While at NDSS, she held several roles that allowed her the opportunity to engage with and lead federal, state, and grassroots efforts to transform domestic policy to better meet the needs of individuals with Down syndrome and their families. Anna’s passion for advocacy and disability rights grew from the friendships she made with peers with disabilities as a young child and was further cultivated during her time teaching high school special education and working with her alma mater’s inclusive post-secondary program. In her free time, Anna volunteers with PALS inclusive summer camps, sits on the board of the 501(c)3 nonprofit STRIDES, and enjoys traveling, reading, and ballet.

Christian is currently pursuing an MPA/J.D. at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and Harvard Law School. He was previously an economist at the National Domestic Workers Alliance. He served under the Biden Administration as a special adviser at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, where he covered industrial policy and public investment. Prior, Christian was a senior research analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Within the Monetary Policy Research Division, he worked on macroeconomic forecasting and labor economics. Christian received his B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Columbia University, with honors in economics.