A New York native, Matthew (Matt) LoCastro is pursuing a JD degree at Yale Law School. Before law school, Matt worked as a Consultant with the Asia Foundation, assisting in the operations of their leadership development programs during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Matt was also a 2018-2019 Luce Scholar in Jakarta, Indonesia, where he worked as a Research Associate from 2018 to 2020 with both the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) and a local Indonesian non-profit, Sandya Institute. At ERIA, Matt focused on low-carbon technology financing, energy efficiency, and regional infrastructure development. With the Sandya Institute, Matt led refugee advocacy research, opening pathways for Indonesia’s 14,000 refugees to pursue livelihood opportunities. From 2017-2018, Matt was an Urban Fellow placed with the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, focusing on renewable energy procurement for the City of New York. Matt has co-authored two papers with ERIA on regional infrastructure investments, a peer-reviewed article with the Asian Development Bank Institute on coastal infrastructure development, and op-eds in the South China Morning Post, the New York Daily News, the ASEAN Post, and Tempo.co. He has also authored a report with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on refugee labor economics. Matt graduated from the Macaulay Honors College at CUNY Hunter College in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in Economics, and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, with a minor in Public Policy.