Shiro comes to Stanford after 5 years working in social impact and international development in the United States as well as across East Africa. Most recently, she worked with GiveDirectly, supporting systems’ improvements and operations across their programs as Chief of Staff for International Programs. Prior to that, she was a manager on the internal consulting team at One Acre Fund where she led multiple global talent and change management projects. Shiro is passionate about sustainable, community-led development and is interested in pursuing a career at the intersection of climate resilience and development. She is particularly interested in agriculture, food systems, and urban adaptations to climate change. Shiro graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Chicago (AB ‘16) with a degree in philosophy. Immediately after graduating, she served as a public service fellow with a New York based charity through University of Chicago’s competitive Shriver Public Service Fellowship program.

Ben Zehr comes to his graduate studies after four years running Kisano, a vertical farming technology company in India. Growing up, Ben was surrounded by conversations about food, livelihoods, and impact driven technology – topics that translated to a personal interest in sustainable development over the course of his academic career. After fusing his ag-development interests with applied economics studies at Cornell, Ben put this passion to work at Kisano. Today, Kisano operates India’s largest high-tech vertical farm and focuses its efforts on enabling the growth of efficient, climate smart farming techniques through knowledge and technology dissemination in South and Southeast Asia. Through the Master's in International Policy, with a focus on food and the environment, Ben hopes to broaden his understanding and build his capacity to tackle the challenges of the next 100 years. When he isn’t thinking about those things though, Ben loves cooking family style meals, reading nonfiction, hiking when he can, and making music with friends.

Taimur is joining MIP after spending the past 3 years as a management consultant at McKinsey, focusing on operational transformations, strategy development, and design thinking across various industries. Prior to that, he was working on an agricultural development project in Pakistan as a quantitiave research assistant, focusing on improving yields and incomes in some of the poorest villages of the country. His interests are at the intersection of economic development, energy systems, social theory, and new technologies. At MIP, he is particularly focusing on how a better understanding of the monetary system, energy inequality, and blockchain technology can help solve the climate crisis. He has a background in International Economics from Georgetown University (Qatar campus), where he was awarded the Abu Hamid Al Ghazzali Best Graduating Student Award. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, and avidly watching/playing football (soccer), tennis, and cricket.

Joyce is a Master’s in International Policy candidate at Stanford, where she specializes in energy, natural resources and the environment. She is also one of the editors-in-chief of Stanford International Policy Review. Joyce’s research interests lie at the intersection of economic diplomacy and environmental governance. Previously, Joyce worked at AidData, an international development research lab, where she studied Chinese public diplomacy efforts in two major world regions and led the assembling of a novel dataset that tracked $843 billion in Chinese development financing around the world. She has also worked for UN Women’s China office and the US-ASEAN Business Council in the past. Joyce received a B.A. in International Affairs and Economics from the George Washington University. Born and raised in Singapore, Joyce is bilingual in English and Mandarin Chinese. In her spare time, Joyce enjoys reading, baking, painting, and playing board games.

Calli Obern is pursuing her Master’s in International Policy at Stanford University, specializing in energy, natural resources, and the environment. Calli is also a research fellow with Ecospherics, an advisory firm on environmental and national security issues and has researched Chinese investments in Asia at Stanford. Previously, Calli managed US-China dialogues on climate and energy at the Aspen Institute. Calli received a B.A. from Occidental College in 2016, where she studied Diplomacy and World Affairs and Mandarin Chinese. In her free time, Calli enjoys running, singing karaoke, practicing foreign languages, and playing Euchre, the best Midwestern card game.