Jim Pearse, President

Jim Pearse grew up in at least eight different American cities, but he calls Boston home. In spite of his nomadic childhood, he settled on being devotedly passionate about studying one particular part of the world: China. During his year at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, Jim fostered his love for Kung Pao Chicken, studying economics in Mandarin, and not going on Facebook. Jim hopes to continue working towards social and structural integration of SAIS’ three campuses, and especially looks forward to teaming up with the Student Committees to enrich the academic, social and professional experience of all SAIS students.

Graham Norwood, Vice President

Graham Norwood was born and raised near San Francisco, CA, and still considers it home despite having spent more than half his life in the U.S. northeast. He was extremely honored to serve as SGA President in Bologna last year, and eagerly anticipates his new role as president of vice here in DC. Prior to arriving at SAIS, Graham spent four years plying his trade as a full-time musician in New York City, also passing countless hours folded up in a cramped Econoline van during his band’s frequent tours of the United States. He now focuses on ERE issues. Graham looks forward to continuing his service to the SAIS community this year, and to ushering in a new era of SAIS hegemony.

Lisa Frumin, Treasurer

Lisa Frumin is a gymnast gone runner gone SAISer/LASPita. In the last 4-5 years, she has grown accustomed to the DC roads and culture. The distance, however, has not diminished Lisa's love for her hometown, Boston, or its awesome sports teams. Hey girl...Nothing is more sustainable in the long run than my confidence in Lisa Frumin as your SGA Treasurer.

Aly McGee, Social Chair

As social chair, Aly McGee is tasked with coordinating fun activities that won't compromise anyone's security clearance. Her fundraising stint in New York City prepared her well for any curve balls that the DC hospitality industry might throw her way. As she was a Peace Corps Volunteer, Aly is more relaxed than the average event planner and promises not to email you more spam than is necessary. She is a conflict management student and last year was involved in SAIS Corps and the regionally dominant SAIS Kickball team. She realized her true calling was behind the bar at school happy hours, so she stepped up her game and ran for SGA. She looks forward to serving her fellow classmates this year.

Becca Dash, Bologna Center Representative

Though originally from the land-locked state of Colorado, Becca has developed a knack for moving across oceans on a yearly basis.  She is always up for an adventure, but never stays put for long.  This has left her spending extended periods of time studying in Spain and Italy, teaching, researching and administering the Fulbright program in Russia, and generally wandering around the world. She is now working on collecting a series of Master’s degrees in an attempt to delay the return to adult life, but is hoping to find a little discipline and direction by being a Strategic Studies concentrator.  When not preparing to rule the world, Becca can be found baking, experimenting with new ice cream flavors, or challenging people to a game of cards. After SAIS she plans to try her luck at being an astronaut.  She is looking forward to another exciting year at SAIS with all of her Bologna classmates, and can’t wait to meet everyone else who will surely make it a year to remember. Prego mille.'

Kaelyn Lowmaster, Nanjing Center Representative

Kaelyn is originally from Meadville, PA, home of the nation’s first zipper factory and very little else.  She began studying Chinese in college mostly out of misguided post-adolescent rebellion, and headed to Beijing in 2007.  She enrolled in the Hopkins-Nanjing Center two years later, and has been involved with SAIS ever since – first as a Certificate student in Nanjing, then as a staff member in the HNC offices in DC and China, and now as an MA student concentrating in China Studies and Conflict Management.  Kaelyn is excited to be serving as the first Nanjing representative on SGA, and is looking forward to helping bring SAISers in Nanjing, DC, and Bologna a little closer together.

Akshat Chaturvedi, MIPP Representative

Akshat has joined as MIPP representative at SAIS. He is originally from the most forsaken and forgotten part of India that very few had ever heard of in his own country. But when a major earthquake happened in the city of Bhuj, Akshat  and the world discovered each other for the first time. His passion for working in international development took him to several countries of Asia and Africa. He  was working with the UN and lived in Thailand and Botswana before moving to DC. He often brags about his ability to speak Thai, Setswana, French and English so let us hope that he passes the proficiency exams for each of these foreign languages soon. He loves yoga, meditation, flute and photography. Apart from being an ERE affiliated MIPP student he has  bachelors degrees in English Literature, Law and Masters in Disaster Mitigation Science. Integrating MIPP students with the campus life and career events will be his major priority during his tenure.

Anne Gillman, 1st Year Representative

Bit by the travel bug at a young age, Anne fell in love with dim sum and all things international.  This led her to develop a fascination with the intersection of business and diplomacy, and hence, now she is at SAIS pursuing a MA with a concentration in the fantastic Southeast Asia studies department, studying Burmese.  In her previous lives she has been a strategic communicator at Hamilton Advisors in Hong Kong and an English Teacher through Princeton in Asia in Taichung, Taiwan.  She’s a die-hard Trojan from the University of Southern California where she studied Political Science, Chinese, and Business Administration.  Anne shows her San Diego roots with her love of all water / beach / outdoor activities and sports from scuba diving to surfing.  She’s looking forward to helping to make this an unbelievable year for her classmates, full of working hard and playing hard, as they together train for positions in the international SAIS mafia.  

Jing Jing Zhou, 1st Year Representative