Public Policy Archives

Sarah Jacob

Sarah Jacob is a public policy researcher whose work has involved labor, migration, gendered violence, and public economics. She recently graduated from Georgia State University with a master’s in public policy. While attending graduate school, she served as a graduate research assistant and learned hard and soft skills pertaining to community needs assessments and qualitative and quantitative program evaluation. She earned her undergraduate degree from Brandeis University, where she studied economics, with minors in philosophy and legal studies. Her academic background has shaped her commitment to equity-driven research and marginalized communities.

Professionally, Sarah has worked across multiple U.S. states as a community organizer, labor advocate, and social service provider. She worked for the Georgia House minority leader as a policy assistant in 2026, flagging harmful legislation and conducting public policy research to guide legislative decision-making. In Chicago during 2022–2024, she built and led a home energy campaign in Rogers Park, during which she developed relationships with diverse communities through street-level engagement and also provided domestic violence prevention training to Asian communities.

Beyond her academic and professional pursuits, Sarah is an avid reader, a lover of history, and an active participant in community organizing. Her lived experiences across many U.S. cities, combined with her deep personal ties to India, shape her interest in fostering cross-cultural dialogue, public scholarship, and long-term engagement with global labor issues.

For her Fulbright-Nehru project, Sarah is studying labor welfare in the gig economy of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, where she is examining how India’s shift toward market-driven growth has reshaped work structures. Through an affiliation with the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), she is conducting semi-structured interviews with platform workers, managers, and stakeholders, supported by a Malayalam-speaking research assistant. Her research is integrating qualitative fieldwork with existing CDS data to analyze issues such as worker security, dignity, and “decent work” conditions. The project aims to contribute to global labor policy conversations and strengthen academic exchanges between the U.S. and India.

Walsh Kern

Walsh Kern is a 2025 graduate of Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. He previously worked as an intern in Washington, D.C., in both the U.S. Senate and the Department of the Interior, where his work primarily focused on renewable energy policy. He developed an interest in Indian politics while working as a research assistant for Professor Aseema Sinha who was studying Indian welfare schemes.

Walsh’s Fulbright-Nehru research project is exploring the question: how are India’s international renewable energy commitments implemented at the subnational level? He is particularly interested in understanding the motivations behind state climate action and examining how policies vary across states. His research is focusing on the state governments of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to analyze this variation. The aim is to identify the driving forces behind state-level renewable energy policy in order to offer valuable insights into this critical policy landscape. Since renewable energy collaboration is a major component of the U.S.-India relationship, his research will also contribute to a deeper understanding of India’s transition towards green energy.

Parakh Hoon

Dr. Parakh Hoon is a professor of political science at South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, Washington. He earned a PhD in political science from the University of Florida, a master’s in international development from Brigham Young University, an MA in international relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and a BA from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. His academic career includes faculty positions at American University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Virginia Tech, California State University Long Beach, and Saint Martin’s University.

With over 25 years of diverse teaching and research experience, Dr. Hoon has significantly contributed to the fields of governance and policy, particularly in southern Africa. He has participated and co-led various international workshops, including the Africa-APSA workshop in Botswana in 2012, funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation. His research employs a mixed-methods approach, integrating qualitative and quantitative techniques to study topics ranging from livelihood adaptation and climate change to wildlife conservation politics in southern Africa. His work has been published in scholarly journals such as African Studies Quarterly, Development Southern Africa, and Society & Natural Resources.

Jaipur, with its rich history of cultural syncretism, is serving as the backdrop for Dr. Hoon’s Fulbright-Nehru project. Dr. Hoon is examining vocational education frameworks by contrasting the community college model in the United States with the Swiss-German system at Bhartiya Skill Development University (BSDU) in Jaipur. He is leading a faculty community of practice, offering workshops and presentations on the politics and ethical use of generative artificial intelligence tools, assisting BSDU with curriculum development, and exploring industry partnerships, especially in green technologies like solar and wind. The project is also identifying vocational and technical programs between BSDU, South Puget Sound Community College, and community and technical institutions in the U.S. to foster faculty and student collaboration and exchange.