Project Team Leaders
Jiseon Chang
IPD Project Team Leader
PhD Candidate, Department of Government
The University of Texas at Austin
Jiseon.chang@utexas.edu
http://www.jiseonchang.com/
Jiseon Chang is a PhD candidate in the Department of Government and IPD lead on the Peacebuilding Team. She earned her BA in Economics and International Studies and her MA in Global Affairs and Policy from Yonsei University. Her research interests include international development, human rights, poverty, inequality, political economy of foreign aid, experimental methods, and individual-level misperceptions and misinformation. Her dissertation explores when and how (mis)perceptions of foreign aid influenced by (mis)information and experience could be corrected or worsened in developing countries.
Shannon Miller
IPD Project Team Leader
MA Candidate, Global Policy Studies, LBJ School of Public Affairs
The University of Texas at Austin
shannonmiller@utexas.edu
Shannon Miller is a Master of Global Policy Studies student at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. She is from Kingston, Jamaica, and graduated from the University of the West Indies, Mona with a BSc in Geology and Geography. Her policy interests at the LBJ School of Public Affairs include climate change adaptation, clean energy and decarbonization, ESG strategies, and the confluence of global warming and public health. Her previous research with the Jamaican government, IDB, and CIF produced policies that advanced the design and implementation of climate change adaptation and conservation solutions in Jamaica and the Caribbean.
Danny Cowser
IPD Project Team Leader and Instructor, IPD Research Practicum
PhD Candidate, Department of Government
The University of Texas at Austin
dannycowser@utexas.edu
Danny Cowser is a PhD Candidate in the UT Department of Government and holds an MA in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Danny current leads a number of IPD project teams, including Government Responsiveness, Governance -Trade Wars, and Refugee Housing. Danny also co-leads the Peacebuilding Team with Jiseon Change and serves as instructor of the GOVT/IPD Research Practicum.
Rachel (Ji Yeon) Jeon
IPD Project Team Leader
PhD Candidate, Department of Government
The University of Texas at Austin
jjeon2@utexas.edu
Rachel Jeon is a PhD student in the Department of Government and leads the Exiting Russia team at IPD. Her research interests broadly concern topics in international political economy and international institutions. Most recently over the summer of 2023, she conducted her first fieldwork in Vietnam. Prior to coming to UT, Rachel earned her BA in International Studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea. She also briefly worked for a NGO providing for North Korean defectors. For the 2023-2024 academic year, Rachel will continue to lead the Exiting Russia team. When she’s not hanging around in the many caves of the IPD labs, she’s probably learning how to jump on horseback or working on her foodie Instagram account.
Zhizhen Lu
IPD Project Team Leader and Instructor, IPD Research Practicum
PhD Candidate, Department of Government
The University of Texas at Austin
zhizhen_lu@utexas.edu
https://www.zhizhenlu.com/
Zhizhen Lu is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Government and is the Project Team leader for Sweetheart Tax Deals. Zhizhen studies the regulatory politics of strategic interactions between states and multinational corporations in the context of business compliance with economic sanction. Prior to his academic career, he worked at China Policy in Beijing as the lead macroeconomic analyst. He also has professional experiences at the European Union Delegation to China, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, and the World Resource Institute. Zhizhen holds an M.A. in International Trade and Investment Policy from the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University.
Eoin Power
IPD Project Team Leader
PhD Candidate, Department of Government
The University of Texas at Austin
elpower17@gmail.com
Eoin Power is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Government and currently serves as team lead for Banking Bad, Boating Bad, and Data4Defense. His research interests include defense-industrial policy, maritime security, and international financial regulation. Before coming to Texas, he worked as a strategy consultant in the United States, Canada, the UK, Greece, and Serbia, serving public and private-sector clients in aerospace and defense, energy, transportation, and other industrial sectors. Eoin will be working remotely as he conducts fieldwork in Romania on a Fulbright Exchange Program. Eoin earned his BA, Political Science & Philosophy, Middlebury College; MA, Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Gavin Lloyd
IPD Project Team Leader
International Relations and Global Studies
The University of Texas at Austin
loydgavinc@utexas.edu
Gavin is deeply interested in working at the intersection of policy and data, particularly as it relates to improving the general well-being of communities. He is a co-Team Leader of the Corruption project and has worked at IPD for four years. Additionally, he has worked as a Project Advance Austin team member to help a local non-profit organization improve accessibility to low-income residents. This past summer, he was a Public Policy and International Affairs Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University. In the future, he is interested in working in monitoring and evaluation for international development projects or a civic data scientist role.
Regina Cruz
IPD Project Team Leader
International Relations and Global Studies
The University of Texas at Austin
re2002@utexas.edu
Regina Cruz is a third-year undergraduate student at UT Austin. She is in the Liberal Arts Honors Program majoring in International Relations and Global Studies, and Race, Indigeneity, and Migration with a minor in History. Her research interests include humanitarian aid, Latin American affairs, human rights, and migration. She is the Corruption team co-leader, and will be joining the Refugee Housing team as a research assistant. Regina hopes to attend law school to learn about international law and become an immigration attorney.
Augustine D'Eramo
IPD Project Team Leader
International Relations and Global Studies | Plan II
The University of Texas at Austin
aderamo01@gmail.com
Augustine D’Eramo is a fourth year student from Tyler, TX. He is pursuing a bachelors in International Relations and Global Studies and Plan II Honors as well as a certificate in Business Spanish. He is a co-Team Leader of the Corruption team. Aside from contributing to the project deliverables and training new members, he helps to ensure that the team’s key results are reached in an accurate and timely manner. During his final year of undergraduate studies at UT, he plans to apply for the Peace Corps and different graduate programs in foreign policy and public affairs.
Maeve Geary
IPD Project Team Leader
International Relations and Global Studies
The University of Texas at Austin
maevegeary2002@gmail.com
Maeve Geary is a third-year undergraduate student pursuing a bachelor’s in International Relations and Global Studies and a minor in French. She is one of the co-Team Leads for the Corruption Team and she previously held a position as a research assistant on the Government Responsiveness team. Outside of IPD, she serves as the social chair for the International Relations and Global Studies Council. After her time at UT, Maeve plans to attend graduate school to study international affairs and economics.
Sara Engelhard
IPD Project Team Leader
MA Candidate, Global Policy Studies, LBJ School of Public Affairs
The University of Texas at Austin
saraengelhard@utexas.edu
Sara Engelhard is currently pursuing an MA in Global Policy Studies at UT Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs. Previously, she was Assistant Director of Membership at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a nonpartisan think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs. She joined CFR after completing a Princeton in Asia fellowship from 2016 to 2017 in Vientiane, Laos, where she worked with survivors of landmine accidents (the landmines remnants of the Vietnam War). Sara holds a B.A. with distinction in International Studies and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Michigan.
Erica (Yunyi) Huang
IPD Project Team Leader
PhD Student, Department of Government
The University of Texas at Austin
yunyi.huang@utexas.edu
Erica (Yunyi) Huang leads the Renewable Energy team at IPD. Her research interests lie at the intersection of international political economy (trade, investment, and development finance) and environmental politics in the context of emerging markets. She is particularly interested in the domestic determinants of China’s outward economic activities, and the underlying political mechanisms. Prior to UT Austin, Yunyi earned her Bachelor of Laws from Peking University and Master of Arts from Johns Hopkins SAIS. She worked as a Policy Analyst for NGOs in international environmental negotiations. In her spare time, she enjoys swimming and musical plays.
Jacob Townsend
IPD Project Team Leader
MA Candidate, Global Policy Studies, LBJ School of Public Affairs
The University of Texas at Austin
townsendjacob4@gmail.com
Jacob Townsend is in the process of earning a M.A. in Global Policy Studies from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at UT Austin, and holds a B.A. in Government from the University of Texas at Austin. Jacob spent his decade between degrees working at small businesses, serving as an Intern at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, volunteering with various community organizations serving immigrants and first-generation Americans in New York City, and reading.
Byron Xu
IPD Project Team Leader
Government
The University of Texas at Austin
byronxuwork@gmail.com
Byron Xu is a Government Senior with a research focus in international finance regulation, public health, and social disenfranchisement. Outside of Boating Bad, he also leads a research team mapping abortion access indicators post Roe v. Wade. He previously worked in advocacy against public and private marginalization at the Equal Justice Center and Anti-Eviction Mapping Project nonprofits. He publishes poetry on the side.