Matt served as General Counsel and Associate Executive Director at the New Jersey Senate Democratic Office, where he provided legal and policy advice to senators, crafted legislation, and advised members on rules, procedures, and ethics. Matt also served as lead aide to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he helped conduct the Senate's advice and consent vetting of the Governor's nominees and worked on legislation concerning criminal justice reform, mental health courts, and cannabis. Prior to joining the Senate Majority Office, Matt served as Senior Counsel in the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services, where he staffed the Senate Environment Committee and drafted New Jersey's first-in-the-nation environmental justice law, the single-use plastics ban, and a law requiring the replacement of lead service lines in dwellings. Matt is a lifelong New Jersey resident; and you will not meet a bigger advocate for the State than him. At SPIA, Matt hopes to dive deeper into policies concerning climate change and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, and perhaps translate those policies into actionable legislation at the State or federal level.

Nicholas works on disability policy at the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), Singapore. He served on the Secretariat of the Enabling Masterplan 2030 (EMP2030) Steering Committee, where he led the development of the EMP2030, including the drafting and coordination of the EMP2030 report, as well as the setting of topline indicators and targets for 2030. He also developed the Enabling Services Hubs, which activates local communities to build stronger ecosystems of community-based support. Previously, Nicholas worked on Family Policies in MSF, where he initiated the amendment of the Women’s Charter to introduce divorce by mutual agreement, which aims to reduce acrimony in divorce and safeguard the welfare of children. He was also the lead policy officer for the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures for Solemnisation and Registration of Marriages) Urgent Bill, which provided couples with the option to solemnise their marriages online during the pandemic. Nicholas was also a delegate to the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, focusing on social, humanitarian, and cultural issues under the Third Committee. Nicholas' policy interests are in structural inequality, community development, and participatory policymaking. He believes that with the right opportunities and support, everyone has the potential to create needle-moving change. In his free time, Nicholas can be found at a climbing wall, adding new shoulder and finger injuries.

Zichen is Research Fellow and Director for International Communications at the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), a leading nongovernmental thinktank in Beijing. Before joining CCG in October 2022, he worked, in China and Europe, for over 11 years at Xinhua News Agency, China's state news agency. He is a recipient of many internal awards from Xinhua and the Chinese authorities. While at Xinhua, he founded Pekingnology, a China newsletter, as a personal project that he now continues to edit at CCG. Pekingnology, by June 2024, had 14,000 subscribers and amassed over 1.5 million views in the year to date. He also edits The East is Read, another China newsletter with 10,000 subscribers, at CCG. The newsletters translate, contextualize, interpret, and summarize Chinese leaders' speeches, China's policy documents, and substantive and technical policy discussions mostly from within China. His work is widely followed and recognized in China-focused diplomatic, academic, and media circles in the West.