ABOUT
Since her early years visiting the Alice Paul Institute, where she first learned about equity and the fight for women's rights, and growing up around strong women lawyers in her own family, Nina has carried a lifelong commitment to advancing women's leadership and representation. Her dedication to public service was nurtured by her South Jersey upbringing, where she saw firsthand what it meant to serve a community with both compassion and rigor.
She is both passionate and practical in her commitment to improving the lives of people within her communities, an outlook that only deepened during her time in Washington, DC, where she came to see how thoughtful policy work can translate values into lasting, tangible change.
Nina is a recent graduate and Schwarzman Scholar of Tsinghua University, where she earned an MA in Global Affairs.
Alongside her academic pursuits, Nina was involved in soccer at Schwarzman College, where she coached the men's team to a quarterfinal finish and captained the women's team to the semifinals.
She is also a graduate of the Yenching Academy of Peking University in Beijing, China. As a Yenching Scholar, she pursued a MA in Law & Society.
For her thesis, Nina examined the National People's Congress's Gender Quota System and other international measures aimed at increasing women's representation in legislative offices. In life, she hopes to contribute to best practices that help uplift women in developing governments.
Nina has spent a collective three years living in China, during which she has traveled extensively across the country's 34 provinces, while learning firsthand about Chinese society, governance, and its role in global affairs. This firsthand exposure has shaped her academic focus, grounding her study of U.S.-China relations, global governance, and international policy in lived observation as much as scholarship.
Much of Nina's motivation to move abroad was shaped by her time in federal service, where she developed a strong sense of public service. Her decision to live in China was ultimately made to benefit the U.S. and its standing in an increasingly interconnected world; she believes that understanding China firsthand, through study and lived experience, is essential to advancing American interests and strengthening the U.S.'s position on the global stage.
During her college career, she worked full-time as a Staff Assistant in the East Wing of the White House. She also spent her undergraduate years contributing to multiple federal agencies and public interest initiatives.
Before her time in abroad, Nina graduated summa cum laude from Rutgers University in May 2023 with a dual bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Planning & Public Policy, along with a triple minor in Economics, Philosophy, and PPE (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics).
At Rutgers, Nina was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Sigma Alpha. She also served at Student Body Vice President. Moreover, she participated in two of Rutgers University's most prestigious academic programs: the Eagleton Institute Undergraduate Associates and the Ralph W. Voorhees Public Service Fellowship.