Abby Bell is a M.A. student in the International Security program with the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. She holds a B.A. in Global Studies with concentrations in international politics and Latin America and minors in Spanish and geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Prior to attending graduate school, Abby worked as a federal contractor with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. She also has experience in the non-profit sector and has lived and worked in Ecuador and Spain. Her academic and research interests include grand strategy, U.S. foreign policy and national security, and international security. After graduating, Abby hopes to pursue a career in foreign policy and national security.
Dharma Bhatt is an MA student in the International Security program at George Mason University. He currently holds a BS in Psychology from the University of Maryland – Baltimore County. While his focus is primarily on security matters in Europe and the Indo-Pacific, he has also taken an interest in intelligence, counter-terrorism, and military strategy. He also maintains a personal blog site known as “isecthoughts,” where he shares his opinions on matters about international relations. After graduation, Dharma hopes to pursue a career in national security and foreign affairs.
Berkley Brown is a M.A. student in International Security at the Schar School of Policy and Government. She served four years with the U.S. Army as a Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Officer, and is looking to go into government service after graduating. Her academic interests include national security strategy and U.S. civil-security relations.
Tim Bynion is a PhD student in Political Science at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, majoring in American Government and International Relations. He holds a B.S. in Political Science from Towson University. His research interests include the domestic sources of American foreign policy, specifically issues of public opinion and national identity.
Nicholas Davidson is MA student in the International Security program concentrating in Intelligence. He holds a BS in Political Science from Northern Arizona University. Having spent 8 years in South Korea, his research interests focus on East Asian security affairs. After graduation, he hopes to pursue a career in the federal government in a role supporting the security interests of the United States.
Brad Duplessis is a PhD student in Political Science at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, majoring in International Relations and American Government. He holds a B.S. in Microbiology from Louisiana State University, a M.A. in International Relations from Webster University, and a M.S. in National Security Strategy from the National War College. His academic interests are national security strategy, military effectiveness, civil-military relations, and security force assistance.
Prior to graduate school, Brad served for 25 years in the United States Army. He has operational experience from the tactical to strategic level with three deployments to Iraq and a deployment to Afghanistan. Brad also supported Department of State security cooperation efforts, leading training missions in Jordan and Malawi. His last operational assignment was at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad where he served as the Director of Operations in the embassy’s security cooperation office.
Alexandra Gerbracht (née Vogel) continues her 22-year career in the Marine Corps as a combat engineer, planner, and logistician. She has studied political science, security studies, and international relations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; George Washington University; Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan; and Marine Corps University as both a student, instructor, and curriculum developer. Now several years into her Ph.D. journey, Lexi’s research focuses on military cooperation and civil-military control in democratizing nations.
Aydin Guven is a PhD student in Political Science at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, majoring in International Relations and Comparative Politics. He holds a M.A. in International Relations from Istanbul Medeniyet University. His academic interests are Asia/Indo Pacific security, South Asian Politics, India’s role in the US-China power competition, India’s East Asia Policy.
Meredith Hutchens is currently pursuing her master’s in International Security at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. She is also a network member at the Initiative for the Study of a Stable Peace. Her research interests include counterterrorism, intelligence, international relations, and conflict resolution with the goal of addressing today’s pressing security issues informed by economic analysis. Hutchens earned her B.S. in Economics and Mathematics with a concentration in Statistics from the College of Charleston where she was a Market Process Scholar at the Center for Public Choice and Market Process.
Danyale C. Kellogg is a Biodefense PhD student, Presidential Scholar, and graduate research assistant at the Schar School. She is currently Managing Editor of the Pandora Report, a Defense Policy Junior Fellow at the National Defense Industrial Association, Young Professional’s in Foreign Policy’s Global Health Fellow, a Pacific Forum Young Leader, and a member of the US-Japan Next Generation Leaders Initiative. In 2021, she earned her Master of International Affairs on the National Security track with concentrations in China Studies and Biosecurity from the Bush School at Texas A&M University after completing her capstone with US Indo-Pacific Command’s China Strategic Focus Group. She also earned a Global Health Graduate Certificate from the Texas A&M School of Public Health where her research focused on ROK preparedness for an infectious disease outbreak on the Korean Peninsula.
In 2019, she earned a BA in History, Paideia with Distinction in Global Health, after completing her senior thesis on US strategic and intelligence failures during the Korean War. She is an alumna Women in Defense Scholar and has studied at Ewha Womans University and Korea University in Seoul as well as Universidad de Los Andes in Santiago. While at Schar, she has completed George Washington University’s Institute for Korean Studies’ North Korea Program as well as the Medical Management of Chemical and Biological Casualties Course, offered by the US Army Medical Research Institutes of Chemical Defense and Infectious Disease. She has interned with the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security, among other organizations. Her research interests include East Asia, global health security, defense policy, grand strategy, and the intersection of public health and national security. Her work has appeared in National Defense, Global Security Review, and Geopolitical Monitor.
Connor Monie is a second-year graduate student in the international security program. He holds a bachelor’s degree in government and international politics with a concentration in international relations from George Mason University. His research interests include alliance formation and management dynamics as well as the US-Japan alliance more specifically. After graduation, he hopes to enroll in a PhD program studying political science.
Yukang Park is a M.A. student in the International Security program at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He holds a B.A. in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations and a minor in International Studies from Stony Brook University.
He has served in the South Korean Marine Corps, and is interested in continuing to contribute to a safer global environment and international security by becoming involved in policy-making. His current research interests include military power and maritime security in the Indo-Pacific. After graduating, Yukang hopes to pursue a career with policy institutes.
Anirudh (Ani) Prakash is a fourth-year undergraduate majoring in Global Affairs and minoring in International Security. Previously, he served as a pre-fellow for the Center for Security Policy Studies-Korea at Mason Korea and now serves as a liaison fellow for CSPS Arlington. Ani’s current research interests focus on South Asian security, the Korean Peninsula, the Indo-Pacific, and NATO.
Jared Sofia is a first-year graduate student in the Schar School’s International Security Program. He holds a B.A. in International Studies with a concentration in National Security and Foreign Policy and a minor in History from American University. His research interests include U.S.-Russia relations, nuclear non-proliferation, and European politics & security. After earning his degree, he hopes to pursue a career in the federal government working in foreign policy and national security.
Joshua Stone is a Political Science Ph.D. student majoring in International Relations with the Schar School of Policy and Government. He is a U.S.-China relations specialist, a father of two, a combat veteran of the United States Army, and an aspiring professor. His research takes aim at material and psychological regulators of the security dilemma and spiral model. Specifically, he examines the effects of state integration and ideology on the severity of a security dilemma between rival states and their impact during offensive conditions in spiraling relations.
He holds a B.A. in Political Science and History in U.S.-China Relations from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.P.P. in Chinese Political and Economic Affairs from the University of California, Irvine.
Steven Wachter is a first-year graduate student pursuing his MA in International Security at the Schar School. He holds a BA in History with a minor in International Studies from American University. His research interests include grand strategy, US foreign policy and national security, and international security. After graduation, he hopes to pursue a career in foreign policy and national security.