I am a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, where I also serve as the East Asia Project Director of the Berkeley APEC Study Center and a Graduate Student Researcher working in collaboration with Professor T.J. Pempel and Professor Steven K. Vogel. My personal research deals with the nexus of comparative politics and international relations in East Asia, and my dissertation looks at varying patterns of environmental cooperation coalitions involving Japanese domestic actors and foreign counterparts. More broadly, I am interested in East Asian regional institutional architecture and Japanese and Chinese political economy , as well as in issues involving causal inference in the social sciences. My work has been published in Asian Survey and in various policy journals, and I also have experience teaching Japanese politics. I hold a double B.A. in Political Science and Japanese, Cum Laude with College Honors, from the University of Washington in Seattle and an M.A in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Prior to joining the Political Science department at Berkeley, I spent one year teaching English to students at four public junior high schools in Niigata, Japan under the auspices of the Japan Exchange & Teaching (JET) Programme. My interest in contemporary policy issues has led me to work briefly at the Washington D.C. headquarters of both the U.S. Department of State (Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Office of Regional and Security Policy) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Office of Water). I have also participated in a number of Track Two diplomatic dialogues in Asia and the U.S. through the Pacific Forum CSIS and its Young Leaders Program and have written several pieces for their online journal Issues & Insights.

At UC Berkeley, I have been very active in the Political Science Graduate Student Association, both as its Secretary/Treasurer (2007-2008) and as a member of its constituent diversity, conference planning, and mentorship committees. I am also the co-founder and coordinator of the East Asian Politics Research Group, an inter-disciplinary graduate student group which meets regularly to discuss social, political, economic, and security issues in Asia with the help of funding from the UC Berkeley Institute of East Asian Studies. I have also participated as a mentor in the Undergraduate-Graduate Mentorship Program and served as a representative of the Political Science department to the UC Berkeley Graduate Assembly.

At the University of Washington, I was highly involved in the UW Honors Program as a student leader and staff member. I served as a Trustee and President of the University Book Store, a Resident Advisor, and the Vice President of the UW chapter of Golden Key International Honour Society, among other things . I also conducted four major research projects, including an undergraduate thesis in each of my degrees.

I have been the recipient of various scholarships and awards, including the Beinecke Scholarship for graduate studies, the Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship, two UC Berkeley Graduate Fellowships in Japanese Studies, a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation International Affairs Internship Grant, the EOP Presidential Achievement Award, the Murakami and Yamamura Scholarships for Japan Studies, the Tatsumi Scholarship for Japanese Language, the Golden Key Junior Scholarship, the Henley and Gerberding Honors Scholarships, and a Mary Gates Research Grant. More information is available in the Portfolio section.