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APL
News March 27, 2026
Career Building at the United Nations: An Interactive Session with Students on Exploring Career Opportunities
The event “Career Building at the United Nations,” co-organized by the Afghanistan Policy Lab at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and Princeton University’s Center for Career Development, featured a practical and candid conversation with students interested in pursuing careers at the United Nations and related international institutions. The session offered encouragement and realistic guidance about the pathways, challenges, and strategic decisions involved in entering the U.N. system.The speakers at the event were Ambassador Adela Raz, director of the Afghanistan Policy Lab, and Nanaho Yamanaka of U.N. Women Afghanistan, Head…
Layna Mosley
News March 26, 2026
Behind the Headline: Tariff Policies Disrupt Global Order
The global economy is reeling from a series of shocks, including the wars in the Middle East and ongoing tariff negotiations between the U.S. and its trading partners. Layna Mosley, a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, explains the impact of tariff policies – including whom they impact the most and what’s likely to happen next. How have the Trump administration's tariff policies impacted global economies over the last year? Layna Mosley: The tariffs are remaking the nature of global production. China accounted for 22% of U.S. goods imported in 2018, but for only 9% at…
From left to right: Stefanie Mavronis MPA ’18; Andi Lipstein Fristedt MPA ’09; Sergio Rodriguez Camarena MPA ’24
News March 24, 2026
What It Means to Graduate Debt-Free
When Stefanie Mavronis MPA ’18 graduated with her master’s in public affairs, she knew exactly where she was headed: The Baltimore native had sought out a public policy degree so that she could return to her hometown and contribute to her community. Yet Mavronis also knew that pursuing that path meant potentially taking a lower-paying job to get her foot in the door and do work with citywide impact.Because she chose to attend the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, that was a path Mavronis could afford. Princeton SPIA’s graduate degrees are fully funded, including a stipend for living expenses and health insurance."One reason we…
Wendy Kopp ’89
News March 19, 2026
A Dorm Room Dream Turns into Reality for Wendy Kopp ’89
It’s the spring of 1989 at Princeton University, and inside her Patton Hall dorm room, Wendy Kopp ’89 is putting the finishing touches on a senior thesis that would guide her career for the next 40 years.Increasingly concerned about educational equity during her time as an undergrad student at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Kopp’s thesis took shape when she noticed just how aggressively students were being recruited to banks and consultancy firms, while options to address education inequities in the U.S. were hard to find.“Recruiters were banging down our doors, asking us to commit two years to work on Wall Street — and I…
Maen Mahfoud
News March 18, 2026
This Social Entrepreneur Wants Americans to Waste Less Food
Every day before lunch, as a boy growing up in Syria, Maen Mahfoud and his brother would ride their bicycles around the neighborhood to deliver meals to relatives and neighbors who were sick or out working. Hungry and exhausted by the midday heat, they resented the task.“It was annoying, but we had to do it every day. Sharing food was essential, and we had to make sure our neighbors were all fed before we could have lunch,” said Mahfoud, who joined the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs in January as the Sugarman Practitioner in Residence at the Kahneman-Treisman Center for Behavior Science and Public Policy.Fast forward to Mahfoud…
Ethan Kapstein
News March 17, 2026
Insecurity and Business Displacement in Afghanistan
Princeton SPIA’s Research Record series highlights the vast scholarly achievements of our faculty members, whose expertise extends beyond the classroom and into everyday life.If you’d like your work considered for future editions of Research Record, click here and select “research project.”
students
News March 16, 2026
Four Princeton seniors awarded ReachOut 56-81-06 Fellowships
Princeton University seniors Alyssa Lloyd, Karina Macosko, Kaitlyn Greppin and Madalyn Mejia have been awarded Princeton ReachOut 56-81-06 Fellowships, an alumni-funded effort launched in 2001 that supports seniors to carry out self-designed public service projects during the year following graduation.
Pascaline Dupas
News March 12, 2026
From Bench to Bedside: Pascaline Dupas is Reshaping Government Policies to Reduce Global Poverty
From providing free insecticide-treated bed nets to creating access to safe drinking water, Pascaline Dupas has long had a singular mission: to identify practical, evidence-based solutions to critical health problems in low-income countries. The internationally recognized development economist joined the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs in 2023 as a professor of economics and public affairs. In addition to her teaching duties, she also directs the Center for Health and Wellbeing, which strives to understand the determinants of health and wellbeing and the role that public policy plays in shaping the quality of people’s lives —…
From left to right: Jessica Colon MPA ’07; Andre Vasilyev MPA ’22; Caroline Hays MPA ’23; Elena Conde MPA ’27.
News March 10, 2026
SPIA Students Explore Careers in Local Government on New York Trip
Protecting communities from natural disasters, ensuring people have housing, creating pathways to economic success: These are all major policy challenges of international scale. Indeed, many Princeton School of Public and International Affairs students aspire to tackle them at the highest global levels.But these are also local issues, ones that individuals working in municipal governments such as New York City grapple with every day.Princeton SPIA students traveled to New York last month to learn about potential careers in local government and the direct impact they can have. Elena Conde MPA ’27, who began her career in international development and…
SPIAction Newsletter
News March 04, 2026
SPIAction Newsletter — March 2026
Reflecting on America’s Past As 250th Anniversary ApproachesAs America celebrates its semiquincentennial, scholars and practitioners from Princeton SPIA examined how the country has repeatedly reinvented itself and what those moments of transformation can teach us today.
Left to right: Jeffrey Herbst, Jennifer Raab, John “J.B.” Buxton, Mitch Daniels, Kathryn Foster, Tony Marx, Scott Fritze
News March 03, 2026
For These Princeton SPIA Alumni, Higher Education Has Been a Higher Calling
In the days before barcodes and scanners, Princeton librarians kept track of who checked out a particular book by using readers’ university ID cards to imprint their names on a card accompanying the book. The card was then returned to the book when it was checked back in.As a junior at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs in the early 1980s, Jeffrey Herbst was in the library conducting research for a policy task force when he picked up a book and took a look at its card to see who had checked it out before him. One of the names he read stood out to him: Princeton SPIA faculty member Sir W. Arthur Lewis, who had won the Nobel…
Dean Amaney Jamal, General (Ret.) Mark A. Milley ’80, Nolan McCarty, Deborah Pearlstein, Julian Zelizer, Khalil G. Muhammad, and Anastasia Mann. Photo by Sameer A. Khan/Fotobuddy
News March 02, 2026
Princeton SPIA Faculty Reflect on America’s Past As 250th Anniversary Approaches
On July 4, 1776, delegates from the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to ratify the Declaration of Independence. The moment marked the beginning of the United States of America as a country independent from the British monarchy. Now, 250 years and many additions, amendments, and awakenings later, the U.S. is set to celebrate its semiquincentennial.To commemorate the moment, scholars and practitioners from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs came together for a panel discussion examining how the nation has repeatedly reinvented itself over its 250 years — and what those moments of transformation can teach us today…
group of people
News February 26, 2026
Dean Jamal Represents Princeton SPIA at Europe Forums
Dean Amaney Jamal represented the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs on the global stage earlier this month, participating in public policy conversations at the Munich Security Conference in Germany and at a gathering of higher education leaders in Spain.The trip served as an opportunity to advance Princeton SPIA research, create opportunities for students, and strengthen connections between academia and policymakers. The Munich Security Conference is the largest global gathering on international security policy, drawing hundreds of top leaders from around the world.“It’s important for policymakers to see that we, as deans of policy…
Dan Kurtzer
News February 25, 2026
Behind the Headline: The U.S.-Iran Crisis Explained
President Donald Trump has threatened to attack Iran multiple times in recent weeks, accusing Tehran of developing weapons capable of striking the United States. Iranian leaders have vowed to respond if the country is attacked militarily. With rising tensions threatening to further destabilize the Middle East, a lot is on the line as the two countries ended talks in Geneva with no deal. Daniel C. Kurtzer, the S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East Policy Studies at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, spent nearly three…
Ayah Abdelwahab, MPA ’27
Community Profile February 24, 2026
#PolicyProfile: Ayah Abdelwahab, MPA ’27
“I grew up in Bogart, Georgia, in a working-class community just a few miles from the University of Georgia. That proximity meant I witnessed starkly different realities side by side. Our county has one of the highest rates of income inequality for its size, and seeing how disparities in access to education, health care, and jobs shaped people’s long-term outcomes was formative. As a first-generation American with family roots in Egypt, I also saw how barriers to basic needs — whether in Georgia or abroad — can undermine opportunity. Those experiences sparked my commitment to addressing inequities and expanding access to the economic foundations…