Q & A

Caroline Agsten is an M.A. candidate at the Jackson Institute. She came to Yale after working at the U.S. Department of State on public diplomacy efforts, including shaping strategic messaging, directing new digital engagement initiatives, and managing a Department-wide public outreach campaign designed to educate the public on the value of diplomacy in U.S. foreign policy. Caroline attended Middlebury College where she graduated summa cum laude with highest departmental honors. She majored in international and global affairs with a concentration in East Asia, writing her thesis on the historical significance of public parks in Beijing and their effects on Chinese identity politics. In addition to conducting fieldwork in China, Caroline spent significant time pursuing Mandarin language studies through the U.S. Department of State’s Critical Language Scholarship program, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan’s cultural exchange program, and the Middlebury C.V. Starr School in China program.

Upon graduation, Caroline deepened her cross-cultural communications experience with her Fulbright scholarship in Taiwan from 2017-2018. As an English teaching assistant in two aboriginal primary schools, Caroline twice received the Outstanding ETA Performance Award for teaching performance, team leadership, and cultural integration. At Yale, Caroline studies U.S.-China relations and U.S. foreign policy with a focus on acquiring the expertise necessary to facilitate exchanges between the United States and policy-important regions in Asia.

Libby Lange is a second-year MA student at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. Prior to coming to Yale, Libby worked as the lead English speechwriter and social media manager for Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, an experience that solidified her interest in how narratives are formed and weaponized in the age of social media. During her time at the Office of the President, Libby accompanied President Tsai on state visits throughout the Caribbean and worked closely with the Director-General of the National Security Council. Libby graduated from National Taiwan University in 2018 with a B.A. in international relations. During her time at NTU, Libby interned for the U.S. Commercial Service at the American Institute in Taiwan and helped design and lead a class on geopolitics with former U.S. diplomat William Stanton. At Yale, Libby studies U.S. China policy with a focus on disinformation mitigation strategies and democratic resilience.

Joshua Lam was born in Melbourne, Australia and raised in Hong Kong. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 2018, with a B.A. in economics and public policy studies. His senior thesis explored the relationship between international election monitoring and electoral violence in sub-Saharan Africa. As an undergraduate, Joshua interned at Send A Cow, a nonprofit focused on supporting smallholder farmers in central and eastern Africa, evaluating a series of village-level microfinance training workshops in Kakamega County, Kenya. After graduation, Joshua worked as an associate at IDinsight, a global advisory, data analytics, and research organization in the international development sector. He coordinated data collection for an impact evaluation measuring the health effects of a medical product delivery company in Ghana, and advised on a variety of monitoring and evaluation initiatives for social sector organizations in South Africa to inform program design and expansion. At Yale, Joshua is pursuing a joint degree at the Jackson Institute and the School of Management. He is exploring the opportunities and potential pitfalls of leveraging private sector innovation to solve challenges in low- and middle-income countries.

Resla Wesonga graduated from Yale University in 2019 with a double major in political science and African studies. She completed her joint senior thesis on Rwanda’s use of nation branding as a tool to advance its geopolitical goals and its effect on politics in East Africa. While at Yale, she completed several internships with the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington D.C., where she conducted an impact assessment of the Zimbabwe grants program; Fidelity Bank in Accra, Ghana, where she worked to expand the bank’s financial inclusion programs; and Keepod in Tel Aviv, Israel, where she helped diversify Keepod’s partners in the Kenyan educational market. After graduation, she moved to Princeton, New Jersey, to work as the outreach coordinator for Princeton in Africa. At Princeton in Africa, she managed all the West Africa-based fellows, revamped and diversified the organization’s communication strategy, and organized fundraising campaigns that gathered over $250,000. At Jackson, she is focused on political strategy, effective governance and public goods delivery in low and middle-income countries, and diplomacy.

Emily McInerney is a joint-degree student with the Jackson Institute and the Yale School of the Environment. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Connecticut in 2015 with a degree in natural resources. As an undergraduate student, she worked for the UConn Office of Environmental Policy (OEP) where she was a member of UConn’s Environmental Policy Advisory Council, organized the school’s recycling program and coordinated environmental awareness events, including UConn’s participation in the 2014 NYC People’s Climate March. She was provided a grant by the university for her Honors thesis to collect greenhouse gas emissions from constructed wetlands. She later co-published her paper in the scientific journal Wetlands. She was awarded the “Environmental Leadership Undergraduate Student Award” for her work with the OEP and her initiative leading the campus’ largest environmental club, EcoHusky. Upon graduation she moved to Mexico to work as an Environmental Education Peace Corps volunteer. She spent three years working with youth to develop environmental awareness. Her primary project was biodiversity monitoring with camera traps to identify the flora and fauna in the region, for which she was awarded a Small Projects Assistance grant from Peace Corps and USAID. At Yale, Emily focuses on the intersection of environmental justice and human rights in Latin America.

Will Godfrey graduated summa cum laude from Ursinus College in 2013 with a B.A. in international relations and French. During his studies, Will focused on international aid and economic development, completing an honors thesis comparatively assessing divergent development trends in East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Following his graduation, Will moved to the Adamawa region of Cameroon to serve as an Agriculture Extension Volunteer with the United States Peace Corps from 2013-2015 where he collaborated with local communities to address issues of food insecurity. Before coming to Jackson, Will spent nearly five years working with Tanager, an international nonprofit that co-creates sustainable development solutions in agriculture with private firms and foundations. In this position, Will managed livelihoods and smallholder producer projects in India and across Africa to expand access to technologies, develop market systems, and facilitate beneficial connections between local producers and global supply chains. At Jackson, he will study sustainable development at the intersection of the private and non-profit sectors to understand how best to leverage private capital for public good.