Tristan Irwin is a third-year joint degree candidate in the Master in Public Policy and Master of Forestry programs at Yale University. She is interested in forest management, forest policy, and climate resilience. Tristan is a nine-year veteran of the Army, where she served as a transportation officer and later as a special operations civil affairs offficer. As a Civil Affairs Team chief, she led a four-person team in Moldova. Her work there focused on assessing civil conditions in under-engaged Moldovan regions and conducting community-level development assistance to strengthen Moldova’s resilience and support its partnership with the U.S. Tristan graduated from the United States Military Academy in 2012 with a bachelor's in international relations and German.