Author Biographies

Danielle Beavers

Danielle was born and raised in South Jersey. She spent 10 years in the San Francisco Bay Area, first at Stanford and then in Oakland, pursuing racial justice advocacy. As the Greenlining Institute’s director of diversity and inclusion, she worked to promote job creation for people of color through workforce and supplier diversity initiatives in the banking, environmental, health, technology, insurance, and utility industries in California and at the federal level. Danielle is excited to learn additional strategies to promote agency in marginalized communities and narrow the racial wealth gap while at Princeton. She completed her summer internship with the GreenLight Fund. Post grad, she hopes to work in philanthropy or in nonprofit consulting to ensure that anchor institutions fully reflect and benefit America’s growing majority.

Kishan Bhatt

Kishan is completing his MPA in economics and health policy after a two-year government fellowship. His most recent placement was in London at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, where he worked with a small team to analyze and determine U.S. votes on project investments. He also spent time at the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., where he conducted and presented economic research on price effects from antitrust-exempted health care mergers. A New Jerseyan and Buffalo Bills fan, Kishan holds an A.B. summa cum laude from Princeton. His undergraduate thesis, an examination of medical debt and bankruptcy, won the top thesis awards from the School of Public and International Affairs as well as the Global Health Program. His ongoing policy interests are health services access and economic mobility.

Molly Brune

Molly grew up right outside of Washington, D.C., and worked on various domestic social policy evaluations at Abt Associates before coming to Princeton. Previously, she also worked on international impact evaluations at Social Impact, and spent a year as a Global Health Corps fellow in Uganda doing monitoring and evaluation for AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES | 73

a nonprofit focused on health systems strengthening. This past summer, she completed an internship with the Office of Evaluation and Inspections at the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. After completing her MPA, she hopes to work on integrated data systems and help cities better use their data to inform policy.

Alice Chang

Alice grew up in Potomac, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C., suburbs After studying economics and finance at the University of Maryland, Alice joined the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) as a director’s financial analyst. At CFPB, she worked on issues related to student loans and mortgages, including reviewing consumer complaints and assessing the effectiveness of mortgage servicing regulations. Prior to starting at Princeton, Alice was a research and policy analyst at the Student Borrower Protection Center, an organization solely dedicated towards alleviating the burden of student debt for millions of Americans. She completed her summer internship with the Citywide Analytics Team for the City of Boston. In her free time, Alice enjoys traveling, hiking, and practicing yoga.

Riley Edwards

Riley grew up in small towns in Wisconsin and Washington state before moving to New York City for college, where she majored in physics and political science. After graduating, she worked as a researcher at the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research and watchdog organization focused on New York City and State government. Her focus was on increasing transparency and evaluation of economic development incentives, including the Amazon HQ2 deal. Riley’s policy interests include workforce development and economic justice for poor and working Americans. She completed her internship this past summer with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. When not working, she can be found hanging out with her two cats, trying out new recipes, or playing bar trivia.

Marissa Korn

Marissa attended Northeastern University in Boston, earning a Bachelor of Science in political science and economics while minoring in gender studies. With a background in consumer health advocacy, Marissa has centered her career on expanding access to quality, affordable health care. Prior to arriving at Princeton, Marissa worked for Community Catalyst, providing technical assistance, campaign strategies, and capacity-building tools to state consumer health advocates promoting affordable health coverage in key states. More recently, as a Graduate Policy Fellow with State Health and Value Strategies, Marissa worked with a team of health policy experts providing technical assistance to state governments addressing COVID-19 and other policy priorities such as health equity, affordability, and coverage. Marissa is particularly passionate about reproductive rights advocacy, with experience volunteering for NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts and helping elect pro-choice Democratic women at the Barbara Lee Political Office in Cambridge, MA. Outside of her health care advocacy work, Marissa likes to play board games, watch the Red Sox, and visit new coffee shops.

Mark Lee

Originally from Southern California, Mark studied business administration at the University of California, Berkeley. Upon graduating in 2012, he relocated to Washington, D.C., where he spent five years working in consulting, media, and market research in the federal government sector. In 2017, he began working at the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights organization. As the senior content manager of the HRC Foundation’s Public Education and Research program, he oversaw research studies and educational campaigns on a wide range of queer and trans issues, including anti-LGBTQ violence, racial justice, youth well-being, and paid family and medical leave. In the summer of 2020, he completed his MPA internship with the Office of Atlanta City Councilmember Amir Farokhi. A lifelong musician, Mark is a semi-professional pianist and vocalist who loves performing and enjoying music of all genres. He is also an avid biker, hiker, adventurous foodie, and self-professed boba tea aficionado. At Princeton, Mark will be concentrating on domestic urban policy, which he hopes to apply toward supporting marginalized communities at the local and municipal government level.

Kevin grew up in rural Northern California, and graduated from UC Berkeley in 2014. He most recently worked at the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) at UC Berkeley, where he managed a portfolio of technology-focused international development research projects. Prior to joining CEGA, he worked in the antitrust practice of an economic consulting firm, providing data analysis and research support for expert testimony. For his summer internship, Kevin worked with the Ayroles Lab at Princeton. Kevin’s academic interests are focused on technology policy, especially around the implementation of new data science tools and how it intersects with health and economic policy.

Nabil Shaikh

Through the Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative at SPIA, Nabil spent two years working at the U.S. Department of Justice on enforcing the civil rights of individuals with Opioid Use Disorder, prisoners on mental health watch, and nursing home residents affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Before entering Princeton’s MPA program, Nabil worked in Congress on thwarting the attempted repeal of the Affordable Care Act, developed policies for the New Jersey state government to address health disparities, and studied global access to end-oflife care with the Princeton Center for Health and Wellbeing. He enjoys stand-up comedy, baking, and long walks with audiobooks.

Martin Sweeney

Martin entered the MPA program after working for nearly four years at the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), a spin-off of the UK Cabinet Office that applies behavioral science and evaluation to public policy challenges. Martin joined BIT’s North America office in 2015 as one of the team’s original members and supported six US cities deliver low-cost evaluations through the “What Works Cities” initiative. Upon moving to BIT’s headquarters in London, Martin worked as a lead researcher on a wide variety of projects with partners and government departments in the UK and abroad. Prior to joining BIT, Martin worked at Innovations for Poverty Action, where he managed and analyzed data for a number of randomized controlled trials in international development. Martin graduated from Middlebury College in 2013 with a B.A. in economics and environmental studies. He completed his MPA internship this past summer working for the London Borough of Hackney. After completing the MPA, Martin hopes to continue using data and evidence to improve public policies and services.

Joseph Tso

Joseph originally hails from Los Angeles, California, but spent a decade in the Washington, D.C., area after graduating from Georgetown University in 2011. Prior to arriving in Princeton, he worked for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a public sector labor union. As a strategic analyst, Joseph worked on both public and private sector union campaigns, and was also involved in internal data analysis for the union. He interned this past summer with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, where his portfolio included projects around the state’s COVID response efforts. Joseph’s academic passions center around the role of public policy in marginalized communities, with a specific focus on the effects of health care and social services. In his free time, he enjoys basketball, video games, and mahjong.

Clarke Wheeler

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Clarke graduated from Barnard College with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and Africana studies in 2016. Most recently before joining the MPA program, she was a government relations associate at Planned Parenthood of New York City, where she advocated for sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice through stakeholder engagement, coalition partnerships, and policy analysis and advising. Prior to this role, she participated in the New York City Urban Fellows Program, through which she worked at the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs Office of Financial Empowerment and coordinated the NYC Free Tax Prep Initiative. She was also a participant in the Fellowship for Emerging Leaders in Public Service, a program of NYU Wagner and the NYU Leadership Initiative. This past summer, she completed the MPA internship working with the Center for the Study of Social Policy, with a focus on child welfare, anti-racism, and abolition.

Dan Meuse

Dan Meuse, Deputy Director of the Advancing Coverage in States, and State Health and Value Strategies programs, is based at the Center for Health and Wellbeing. He assists the program director in managing and coordinating the technical assistance providers serving states in their implementation of the Affordable Care Act and various payment and delivery system reforms. Dan was deeply involved in Affordable Care Act implementation at the state level as Deputy Chief of Staff for Rhode Island's Lieutenant Governor. Dan was the principle subject matter expert for the Rhode Island Healthcare Reform Commission on Health Insurance Exchange policy and delivery system and payment reform through mid-2014. He also served as the State Innovation Model project director for Rhode Island's Model Design project and led the Exchange's stakeholder engagement efforts. Dan received a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University and a Master's in Business Administration from Providence College.

Heather Howard is a faculty affiliate of the Center for Health & Wellbeing and director of State Health and Value Strategies, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded program that provides technical assistance to support state efforts to enhance the value of health care by improving population health and reforming the delivery of health care services. She served as New Jersey's Commissioner of Health and Senior Services from 2008-2010, overseeing a cabinet-level agency with a budget of $3.5 billion and staff of 1,700 responsible for public health services, regulation of health care institutions, senior services, and health care policy and research. Previously, Howard served as Governor Jon Corzine's Chief Policy Counsel, directing his policy agenda. She also has significant federal experience, having worked as Senator Corzine's Chief of Staff, as Associate Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council and Senior Policy Advisor for First Lady Hillary Clinton, as an Honors Attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division Health Care Task Force, and for the U.S. House of Representatives. She received her J.D., cum laude, from the New York University School of Law, and her B.A. cum laude, from Duke University.

Heather Howard