Peter Joseph Wilborn

University of California, San Diego, School of Global Policy & Strategy

CLASS YEAR: 2023

Peter Joseph Wilborn is an Atlanta native and 2019 graduate of Morehouse College where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and International Affairs. While at Morehouse, he participated in the STARs Program as a research assistant at UC San Diego and was a Public Policy and International Affairs fellow at the Ford School in the University of Michigan. Following graduation, he joined the Peace Corps as an English teacher, where he also worked with local communities in East Africa until he was evacuated by the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020. Upon his return, he joined the Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) as a site manager for COVID-19 testing centers, eventually leading the logistics planning for all Georgia-based sites. His interests lie in regional and international development and policy geared toward human security, and plans to continue developing those skills while at GPS.

Elisabeth Earley

University of California, San Diego, School of Global Policy & Strategy

CLASS YEAR: 2023

Elisabeth Earley graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in political science, specializing in quantitative methods and survey design. There, she worked as a research assistant investigating international anticorruption interventions and assessing their effectiveness and scalability. She also conducted survey experiments measuring confirmation bias for political news on social media. Outside of academic research, Earley studied Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese, played intramural soccer and coordinated volunteers for the student-led organization Bears for Elder Welfare. After graduation, she assisted fieldwork in Brazil and Nepal for the World Bank, and most recently, served as project manager for a large-scale study by the Inter-American Development Bank that used banking and mobility data to track and measure the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Latin American SMEs.

Kelli Sunabe

Syracuse University, Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs

CLASS YEAR: 2023

Kelli Sunabe is a Master of Public Administration and Master of Arts in International Relations joint degree candidate at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University.

Kelli graduated from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in 2018 with a Bachelor of Business Administration in International Business & Human Resource Management and a Bachelor of Science in Fashion Design & Merchandising. She has held several leadership roles in both of her colleges, including President of the Inter-Business Council and during her time as a Shidler Global Leader scholar. She was team captain of UH Mānoa’s first all-women team to win first place in Northeastern University CUIBE International Business Case Competition.

Before coming to Maxwell, Kelli served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer teaching English at a vocational college in China’s rural Sichuan province. She launched her school’s first Business Case Study program in collaboration with colleagues, local Sichuan entrepreneurs, and former professors from UH Mānoa to develop a comprehensive six-week curriculum combined with company visits in the capital city.

As an undergraduate student, Kelli participated in an Executive MBA Asian field study summer program that toured factories and companies in Japan, China, and Vietnam. She saw first-hand the disparity in labor conditions between the various countries. This experience solidified her career aspirations to advocate for ethical business practices and promote humanitarian principles. After graduating from Maxwell, Kelli plans to pursue a career in international labor, ensuring that American companies apply ethical standards domestically and abroad.

Paul-Donavon Murray

Syracuse University, Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs

CLASS YEAR: 2023

Paul-Donavon Murray is pursuing a Master of Public Administration and Master of International Relations dual-degree at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School. Paul-Donavon is a recent graduate from Swarthmore College, with a Bachelor’s in Political Science and a minor in Peace and Conflict Studies. As an undergraduate student, he held leadership positions as a United Nations Association of the United States of America Chapter Leader, Board Member of the Rotaract Club, and Student Government Senator. Paul-Donavon has served as a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Summer Congressional Intern for the Honorable Marcia L. Fudge (OH, District 11) and as a Future Leaders Fellow for the African American Mayors Association. After graduating from Maxwell, he intends to honor his commitment to public service by working in the federal government to help foster peace and stabilization operations throughout the world.

Jacob Emont

Syracuse University, Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs

CLASS YEAR: 2023

Jacob is pursuing a Master of Public Administration and a Master of Arts in International Relations at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School. Jacob graduated summa cum laude from George Washington University in 2015 where he studied Political Science and Arabic. After graduating, Jacob worked as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant at a university in Nevşehir, Turkey. He has since directed programs at the Global Fairness Initiative, working to promote inclusive economies and empower the world’s working poor. This work included efforts to extend social protections to informal workers in North Africa and eliminate forced, bonded, and child labor in Nepal’s brick-making industry. At the Maxwell School, Jacob will further explore international economics and labor issues and the larger systems and forces that affect them. After completing his graduate studies, Jacob aims to continue working to advance the rights of workers around the world.

Chase Burciaga

Texas A&M University, Bush School of Government & Public Service

CLASS YEAR: 2023

Chase Burciaga graduated in 2021 from Texas A&M University with a BS in Mechatronics and two minors, one in embedded systems integration and one in cybersecurity. He has interned at Houston Mechatronics, designing robots for the oil and gas industry; Sentry Technology, researching Internet of Things applications for smart bridge structures; and the Department of Defense, fortifying cyber defense. He has also designed and constructed an underwater unmanned vessel created for undersea research investigations. Additionally, Chase has worked at the Security Operations Center as a student network security analyst and built robotic rovers for research applications in the Mechatronics Intelligence Solutions Laboratory. Chase will focus on cybersecurity diplomacy or nuclear proliferation to prepare for a future in federal government.

Christina Baker

Texas A&M University, Bush School of Government & Public Service

CLASS YEAR: 2023

Christina Baker graduated with honors from the University of Louisville (KY) in August 2016. She received a BA in Political Science and a minor in Russian studies, concentrating on conflict and national security. She studied abroad in Ireland and in the Czech Republic, studying the ethnic conflicts in each country. Following graduation, Christina received a Fulbright Grant to Narva, Estonia, where she taught English and assisted with research on Estonian-Russian tensions. Since then, she has worked in public policy on the federal and local levels, most recently as a legislative aide to a city councilwoman in Lexington, Kentucky. At the Bush School, Christina will concentrate in both international politics/grand strategy and intelligence.

Emily Ashbridge

Texas A&M University, Bush School of Government & Public Service

CLASS YEAR: 2023

Emily Ashbridge most recently served as a program specialist at the US Institute of Peace, working on the Afghanistan and South Asia portfolios, and she supported the congressionally mandated Afghanistan Study Group that identified policy recommendations in Afghanistan for the Biden administration. Emily has traveled extensively in the region and lived in Pakistan from 2015-17 as a Babar Ali Fellow at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. She graduated from the University of Chicago (IL) in 2015 with a BA in Psychology. Emily comes to the Bush School as a Robertson Fellow, where she will further explore US grand strategy in Asia, with particular focus on economics and security.

Megan Whinna

University of Maryland, School of Public Policy

CLASS YEAR: 2023

After completing her bachelor’s degree in Education, Megan served as a Peace Corps education volunteer in The Gambia. During her service, she organized a wide range of projects including country-wide literacy programs, youth development camps, and volunteer trainings. She was promoted to the role of literacy coordinator where she spearheaded major improvements to pre-service and in-service trainings. For the past four years, she worked as an elementary school teacher. As a teacher, she developed and molded equitable math teaching practices for her colleagues. Megan cares about community-based international development through capacity building. Her experiences in The Gambia during the countries transition from dictatorship to democracy made her want to pursue using grassroots diplomacy as a tool for democratization and promotion of human rights. Her research interests include project development and institutional learning with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. Megan will be earning a Master’s of Public Policy from the University of Maryland, specializing in International Development.

JaKyah Beatty

University of Maryland, School of Public Policy

CLASS YEAR: 2023

JaKyah Beatty graduated from Kent State University with a B.S in Fashion Merchandising where she discovered her passion for international development and public policy. After taking classes centered around sustainability and ethics in the fashion industry – from organic cotton farming in India to sweatshops and labor ethics in garment factories in other developing countries, she became deeply inspired to conduct research on outsourcing influences. Upon graduation, she worked for a social enterprise in Gulu, Uganda that employed Ugandan women and aided in economic development. While there, she also partnered with two local men and helped to initiate a community organization that provides education, mental health resources and economic empowerment to local women who worked in prostitution. Her experiences in Uganda pushed her to join The Peace Corps, where she served as a Community Youth Empowerment Volunteer in Fiji from 2019 until COVID ended the organization’s operations in 2020. As a volunteer, she lived in a rural village and facilitated numerous community projects. While serving, JaKyah was elected by fellow Peace Corps Volunteers to serve as one of the five volunteers on the Gender and Development Committee (GAD). This committee was established to support more than 60 Peace Corps Fiji Volunteers and Fijian community members. It assisted the development of volunteer’s Gender Equity Training and distributed resources that aided volunteers in completing gender equity projects as well as women’s economic development projects. All of JaKyah’s lessons and experiences have led her to this moment of growth and opportunity. She plans to research international gender and labor laws associated with outsourcing and manufacturing as well as policy reform for global sustainability standards across multiple industries. She is excited to utilize the networks at The University of Maryland and The Robertson Foundation for Government to further her knowledge on international policy and development and provide a space for her continued growth into the servant leader she feels the world needs more of.