Current MPA Students

Though originally from Massachusetts, LT Michaela Caldwell spent the majority of her childhood in landlocked Pennsylvania. Drawn to the sea, she answered its call by attending the United States Naval Academy, where she earned a B.S. in Political Science and commissioned as a Surface Warfare Officer in 2020. Prior to commencing her graduate education as a Navy Fleet Scholar, Michaela completed two tours of duty onboard USS BULKELEY (DDG 84), a Forward-Deployed Naval Forces Europe destroyer based in Rota, Spain. While stationed overseas, Michaela gained experience in the European area of operations, ballistic missile defense, and moped riding. Upon completion of the MPA program, she will return to the fleet and continue to serve onboard warships around the world.

Born and raised in Mexico, Bernardo earned dual bachelor's degrees in law and political science from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). He began his career as a policy researcher at México Unido Contra la Delincuencia, a civil society organization dedicated to building a more peaceful Mexico, where he advised senators on cannabis regulation and published research on drug policy and democracy. He then joined Dalberg Advisors, a social impact consulting firm, where he worked with multilaterals, governments, private impact investors, and philanthropic organizations on health and development challenges. As Dalberg's Global Health and Nutrition Practice Area Manager, Bernardo co-led the firm's sector strategy and managed Investors for Health, a coalition of impact investors committed to strengthening health systems in emerging markets. Bernardo is most interested in supporting governments and global institutions on their health financing strategies. At Princeton SPIA, he hopes to strengthen his skills in health economics and policy evaluation. After graduation, he aims to take on a strategic role at the World Bank and help governments in emerging markets strengthen their health systems. In his free time, Bernardo enjoys spending time with his wife and cats, playing chess, reading, going on long walks, and watching good TV series.

Spencer was raised in Lynbrook, New York.  In 2023, Spencer graduated magna cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis with concentrations in international politics and political methodology and a minor in anthropology. His senior honors thesis examined how economic dependence on authoritarian states influences political development in post-Soviet Eurasia, earning the Todd Lewis Friedman Memorial Prize for Outstanding Work in Comparative and International Politics. Spencer has experience conducting research on trade policy, democratic participation, and institutional strategy through roles with the Washington International Trade Association and Washington University. Most recently, Spencer completed his service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Dilijan, Armenia, where he worked on youth development, civic engagement, and program evaluation initiatives in rural communities. In partnership with a local NGO, he designed and led programs focused on leadership development, workforce readiness, and public speaking, while also helping analyze survey data used to inform national Peace Corps Armenia programming. Across these experiences, Spencer has become increasingly interested in how governments make decisions under conditions of technological disruption, political uncertainty, and institutional constraint. At Princeton, Spencer plans to focus on technology governance, democratic resilience, and the public-sector implications of artificial intelligence. Following graduation, he hopes to work in policy research and institutional strategy at the intersection of emerging technology and democratic governance.

Taylor is a first- and third-generation Chinese American who grew up in Hong Kong and graduated from Baylor University with a B.A. in international studies. He studied international development and conflict in Morocco, and later lived in Tanzania as a David L. Boren Scholar to study Swahili and conduct field research on climate change and grassroots development. His professional experience spans private equity, entertainment, and government. At The Carlyle Group, he shaped organizational culture practices and led the firm's submission to the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, a benchmarking tool for LGBTQ+ workplace experiences; at Lucasfilm, he built custom data dashboards and supported global outreach through international activations; and at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, U.S. Consulate in Dubai, and the State Department, he gained firsthand experience in American diplomacy. Most recently, as a Fellow with Business Executives for National Security, Taylor researched critical minerals and infrastructure in Africa, developing policy recommendations on new models to facilitate development through responsible private-sector investment. This past summer, he backpacked across the world, traveling through nine countries in eight weeks. At Princeton, Taylor plans to concentrate in international development, with a focus on U.S.-China competition in Africa and development finance. After graduation, he hopes to pursue a career at the intersection of policy and international development. Outside the classroom, he enjoys hiking, running, cooking, and picking up new languages.

Having grown up in London, Joel has spent the past two years at Boston Consulting Group, working across a range of global health, climate and public sector projects. Before that, he read economics at the University of Warwick, where he also helped to launch the U.K.'s first LGBTQ+ careers support university network alongside broader LGBTQ+ and social mobility campaigns. At Princeton, Joel will concentrate in economics and public policy, with a focus on inequality and public trust in increasingly polarized climates. After graduation, he is looking to return to the U.K. to pursue roles working directly with the U.K. government and policy organizations on these topics. Outside the classroom, he enjoys rock climbing and sailing, having found his way out to sea rather more than is probably wise – including a transatlantic crossing in 2023.