Alex grew up detasseling corn and hunting pheasant in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He graduated from Northwestern University with honors in economics in 2014, where he minored in creative writing and math. After graduating, he traded mortgage-backed securities on the Markets Desk of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and then received an Education Pioneers Fellowship to work in the Strategy Department of the City Colleges of Chicago, where he focused on budget and enrollment strategy. Next, Alex was selected to be a Public Interest Fellow in Washington, D.C., where he analyzed U.S. sanctions policy at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and worked as a speechwriter and policy aide for the president of the Hudson Institute. This past summer, Alex was an intern in the Sanctions Policy Office at the State Department. His writing has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Fox News, National Review Online, The Weekly Standard, City Journal, Real Clear Energy, The National Interest, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Hill, Liberty Street Economics, and elsewhere.