Current MPP Students

Asim is a first-generation college graduate whose experiences as a Muslim American inspired his career in public service. He most recently served as the Political Unit Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru. Prior to this, he was the lead Human Rights Officer in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, advising State Department leadership on advancing human rights priorities across the Middle East and North Africa. Asim has also served as a Special Assistant to the Under Secretary and in the Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships, earning multiple Meritorious and Superior Honor Awards for his service. After Princeton, Asim plans to return to the State Department. An avid sports and outdoor enthusiast, Asim enjoys hiking, basketball, and tennis in his free time.

Celene is a Peruvian lawyer whose work sits at the intersection of financial regulation, digital payments, technology, and access to justice. She studied law at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) and earned an LLM from Duke University School of Law, where she focused on business law, privacy, and technology policy. Before coming to Princeton SPIA, she worked at the Central Reserve Bank of Peru, where she helped design and implement regulations for digital payment interoperability and retail payment innovation. Earlier in her career, she represented the Bank in judicial and administrative matters. She also taught alternative dispute resolution mechanisms at PUCP. Outside of work, Celene enjoys watching Real Madrid matches, reading classic novels, supporting pro bono legal work, and contributing to charity efforts for rural schools in Peru. Before arriving at SPIA, Celene spent the summer completing her work at the Central Reserve Bank, preparing for her move to Princeton, and continuing her teaching responsibilities. After graduation, she hopes to keep working on financial regulation, digital transformation, and inclusive public policy, with the goal of helping design financial systems that are more accessible to everyone.

Greta is a Hungarian American citizen who has worked on democracy and voting rights issues for nearly a decade across the federal government and nonprofit sector. Most recently, she was the Director of Democracy Policy at the Center for American Progress (CAP), where she served as a leading national expert on elections, defending civil society, and democratic backsliding while also working to form a global progressive democracy coalition to dismantle the modern authoritarian playbook. Greta’s policy publications have been read by millions and her work and commentary has been featured in a wide range of media outlets including The Washington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Politico, MSNBC, The Associated Press, CBS, and NPR. Prior to joining CAP, Greta worked on Capitol Hill as a policy adviser on the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration for Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) where she worked extensively on democracy legislation – including serving as a lead author of the Freedom to Vote Act and the For the People Act. During her tenure, Greta helped lead the national effort to secure elections during the COVID-19 pandemic and worked on the certification of electoral votes on January 6, 2021, as well as subsequent investigations into the January 6 insurrection. She began her political career by working on campaigns, including California Governor Gavin Newsom’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign and a competitive 2018 Minnesota congressional campaign. Greta plans to continue dedicating her career to making democratic governments resilient, responsive, and worthy of the people they serve.

Heidi is an Egyptian career diplomat who grew up along the Mediterranean coast and has spent more than 15 years in Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Before coming to SPIA, she served as Head of Cabinet to the Assistant Minister for Cultural Relations, working on cultural diplomacy, heritage protection, and the repatriation of Egyptian antiquities. Her diplomatic career has taken her across Latin America, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, with postings in Germany, Ghana, Cuba, Mexico, and Ecuador, as well as senior roles in Cairo. Her work has ranged from assisting Egyptians during the Arab Spring and managing humanitarian and consular cases, to coordinating presidential and ministerial visits, strengthening diaspora engagement, and representing Egypt in multilateral security settings. In 2022, she attended the NATO Defense College’s Regional Cooperation Course in Rome, where she was the youngest participant, the only civilian woman in a predominantly senior military environment, and graduated with honors. During the summer, she wrapped up her diplomatic responsibilities, prepared for the move to Princeton, and tried to remember what homework felt like. After graduation, Heidi plans to continue in public service, focusing on migration governance, human security, environmental diplomacy, and inclusive institutions. In the long term, she hopes to serve in senior diplomatic or international policy roles shaping practical, humane policies for vulnerable communities.

Manuel is a federal domestic policymaker with over a decade of experience in the U.S. Senate. Most recently, he served as Senior Education Policy Advisor on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, where he led Senator Bernie Sanders' K–12 and civil rights policy agenda and previously worked under Senator Patty Murray. He helped secure $190 billion for public schools through COVID relief legislation, delivered $2 billion for student mental health and school safety as lead drafter of the K–12 provisions in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, and spearheaded reauthorization efforts for the Institute of Education Sciences. He has led strategy to prevent the dismantling of the federal Department of Education and the weaponization of civil rights laws. Manuel graduated from Brown University in 2016, where he concentrated in cognitive science. After SPIA, Manuel aims to fight for bold, modern policy that puts working people first. He is a proud first-generation college student, Head Start alum, and son of Mexican immigrants who knows that in the wealthiest nation on earth, inequality is not an accident, it is a policy choice. Outside of work, Manuel enjoys playing ball nearly as much as his dog Dingo!

Shane is an active-duty U.S. Coast Guard officer specializing in international relations, maritime security, and multilateral cooperation. An afloat officer, he spent seven years at sea across four distinct operational regions, executing missions ranging from search and rescue to law enforcement. Most recently, he served as the Executive Officer of an ocean-going buoy tender in Honolulu, Hawaii, leading his crew through critical security and diplomatic engagements with regional partners in Oceania. Between sea tours, Shane served as the Flag Aide to the Coast Guard’s Oceania District Commander, where he spearheaded key leader engagements to bolster regional shiprider law enforcement, humanitarian aid, and personnel exchange agreements. Following his studies at Princeton, Shane will return to public service at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C. There, he aims to join an executive team shaping organizational policy and budgets, directly optimizing frontline operational effectiveness during a period of unprecedented change in the service. When not studying or keeping up with operational updates, Shane channels his creative energy into ceramic arts and pottery, and stays active through surfing and training for triathlons.

Ellie is a bilingual broadcast journalist and foreign policy expert with over 15 years of experience reporting from the heart of global geopolitical flashpoints. As a founding member and Chief Anchor at i24NEWS, Ellie led prime-time programming in both English and Hebrew, and previously served as Head of the Diplomatic Desk covering high-stakes diplomatic events and frontline conflicts worldwide. Alongside her broadcasting career, she serves as an adjunct lecturer at Reichman University’s Raphael Recanati International School, where she also earned her B.A and M.A. in Counter-Terrorism and Homeland Security. She is an alumna of the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program, and her academic work focuses on the intersection of narrative as statecraft, perception as a security mechanism, and democratic resilience. At Princeton, she will examine the architecture of information through an ethical lens, exploring how to defend public trust and preserve shared humanity when truth itself is weaponized. Moving forward, Ellie seeks to reshape global policy by anchoring it in principled technological governance and the moral integrity of language itself, ensuring that communication serves as a bridge for human connection rather than a tool of warfare. While her professional life is dedicated to navigating and uncovering truth within complex global narratives, she is an avid beach lover who always finds her most grounding, wordless truths by the ocean.

Colby is a U.S. Army Foreign Area Officer specializing in the Indo-Pacific region. Originally from Eagle, Idaho, he graduated from the United States Military Academy in 2016 with degrees in environmental science and Chinese. As a Fulbright Scholar at National Taiwan University, he earned a Master of Science in agricultural economics in 2018, where his research explored the balance of competition and cooperation in the self-governance of common-pool resources. Colby subsequently served six years in U.S. Army Aviation as a UH-60 Black Hawk pilot and aviation officer, supporting humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations in Honduras and Guatemala following Hurricanes Eta and Iota in 2020, as well as relief efforts in Haiti after the 2021 earthquake. In the Republic of Korea, he commanded an assault helicopter company and led numerous joint and multinational exercises. His overseas assignments fostered his interest in international cooperation, regional security, and strategy, leading him to transition from Army Aviation to the Foreign Area Officer program. Most recently, he completed a year of in-region training at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia. Following graduation, Colby plans to continue serving in the U.S. Army in support of U.S. security cooperation and Indo-Pacific strategy.

Graeme is a British diplomat who has spent over a decade working at the intersection of economics, security, and international policy. He has served on postings in Tel Aviv, Hong Kong, and Tripoli, and in a range of roles at the U.K.’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London. His work has spanned multilateral diplomacy and crisis response, including serving as Head of the Commonwealth Policy Section and as the U.K.’s economics and sanctions lead in multilateral negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program in 2021–22. Most recently, he worked at the center of government in the Cabinet Office as Head of Security Policy, helping coordinate a cross-government approach to complex security challenges. This summer, Graeme wrapped up his role in London and prepared for the move to the United States. At SPIA, Graeme plans to focus on the implications of rapid advances in AI and other emerging technologies for international security, economic resilience, and geopolitics. After graduation, he intends to continue working on these issues, building on his government experience and his studies at Princeton. In his spare time, he enjoys staying active through CrossFit, running, and tennis, and watching a (very) wide range of sports and films.

Myriam is a sanctions and global threat-assessment expert originally from Lebanon with over 15 years of experience in international relations, sanctions compliance, counterterrorism and its financing, and combating financial crime. Before joining SPIA, she spent five years in New York supporting two United Nations Security Council sanctions committees focused on ISIL, Al-Qaida, their affiliates, and the Taliban. She was the first woman for the MENA region to be appointed by the Secretary General for this role. She led more than 40 field missions and regional consultations across the Middle East, North Africa, and Arabian Peninsula, and represented the U.N. in international bodies including the FATF and its regional networks, the Global Coalition against Da’esh, and joint assessment missions with the IMF. Prior to joining the United Nations, Myriam spent nearly a decade at Lebanon’s Financial Intelligence Unit, working on investigations, compliance, and cross-border information sharing related to money laundering and terrorism financing. She also held roles at Lebanon’s central bank, Ministry of Finance, and Insurance Control Commission. She holds an MBA from the Lebanese American University and an executive certificate in public leadership from Harvard Kennedy School. She is a certified anti-money-laundering and global sanctions specialist and serves on the supervisory board of the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in The Hague. Myriam is fluent in Arabic, English, and French. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, outdoor activities, and reading. After graduation, she plans to continue working in the multilateral sphere, advancing efforts to combat financial crime with a strengthened focus on public diplomacy, peace, security, and defense.