Scowcroft-Nye Fellowship

About the Program

The Scowcroft-Nye Fellowship is a full-time, temporary opportunity for young leaders to join the Aspen Strategy Group (ASG) team. Meant as a stepping-stone to launch a career in national security and foreign policy, the fellowship lets young professionals experience first-hand how today’s preeminent politicians, leaders, and thinkers set aside differences and exchange ideas for open and cooperative dialogue. Scowcroft-Nye fellows typically join the ASG team for a period of six months, during which time they are encouraged to build knowledge in the field while developing the practical skills required to convene dialogues and communicate effectively with national security and foreign policy leaders. Given a great deal of responsibility and an environment in which to thrive, fellows constitute an integral part of the team contributing across the three main pillars of our work: the Aspen Strategy Group, Aspen Security Forum, and Rising Leaders Program.

The Aspen Strategy Group first launched the Brent Scowcroft Award Fellowship program in 2003 in recognition of our founding co-chairman Lieutenant General Brent Scowcroft, who established the ASG with Joseph Nye and William Perry in 1984. General Scowcroft had a distinguished career in public service, serving as national security advisor to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush, among many other roles, and was especially known for his dedication to fostering the next generation of leaders through mentorship. The fellowship was created in the hope that these young professionals will forge careers inspired by General Scowcroft’s expertise and ethos of service. To learn more about General Scowcroft, please read the group’s tribute to him here.

In 2025, the Scowcroft Fellowship was renamed the Scowcroft-Nye Fellowship as a tribute to Joseph S. Nye, Jr. and his forty years of leadership as our co-founder, director, and then co-chair. He shaped our mission and community, setting new standards for thoughtful, nonpartisan dialogue that always puts the interest of the nation first. A dedicated public servant, Dr. Nye previously served as assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, chair of the National Intelligence Council, and deputy under secretary of state. He is a Harvard University distinguished service professor emeritus and dean emeritus of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. We are delighted to recognize his exceptional leadership and dedication to the ASG, as well as his long-standing commitment to raising up new voices in the field through his teaching and mentorship by renaming the fellowship in his honor as well.

We are deeply grateful to Dan and Susan Poneman and the John Anson Kittredge Educational Fund for their generous support of the Scowcroft-Nye Fellowship!

Current Fellows

DJ Reed

DJ Reed joined the Aspen Strategy Group after earning his MA in international security from George Mason University. During his graduate studies, he served as a research analyst at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). In this role, he produced historical grantmaking reports and supported research projects for the vice president of civic engagement and scholarship. DJ also helped execute the Peace Scholar Fellowship Program in partnership with the Minerva Research Initiative. Before USIP, he worked as a policy outreach associate at the Mercatus Center, focusing on state, federal, and external relations. In 2022, he graduated from Boston University with a BA in international relations and a minor in business administration and management. DJ was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and enjoys doing street calisthenics in his free time.

Mathilda Silbiger  

Mathilda joins the Aspen Strategy Group as a recent graduate of Brown University, where she concentrated in international and public affairs on the policy and governance track. Throughout her undergraduate education, she specialized in humanitarian studies, international development, and U.S. national security. For her capstone paper, she evaluated the effectiveness of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda as a tool for reconciliation following the 1994 Rwandan genocide. As an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award grantee, she studied the nexus of development, climate, and humanitarian finance as part of a joint research team between Brown University’s Watson Institute and InterAction. Mathilda was editor-in-chief of the Brown Political Review and president of the Brown Model United Nations program. At Brown, she served as student liaison to Senior Fellows Tom Perez and Malika Saada Saar, Watson Student Advisory Board member, and first-year orientation leader. She is originally from Berlin, Germany.

Former Fellows

2023

Karina Martinez

Karina Martinez is a former Scowcroft fellow and current program associate with the Aspen Strategy Group. She joined the Aspen Strategy Group in May 2023 after completing her master’s degree in international relations at the School of International Service (SIS) at American University. At SIS, she focused on U.S. foreign policy and national security, and worked as a graduate teaching and research assistant from 2021 to 2022. For her capstone project, she contributed to a group report and presentation for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research that identified the sources and methods of terrorist financing for Sunni-aligned groups, as well as country-specific anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) efforts in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. She received her B.A. in government and Chinese language and culture from Dartmouth College in 2019. At Dartmouth, she was a member of the varsity women’s rugby team, a junior research scholar, an editor for the undergraduate journal of international affairs, a Chinese tutor, and a research assistant with the Political Violence Lab. She is originally from Tucson, AZ.

Brent Katz

Brent Katz currently serves as a legislative correspondent in the office of Congressman Tom Suozzi (NY-03). Previously, he was a Brent Scowcroft fellow at the Aspen Strategy Group (ASG), where he helped organize the annual Aspen Security Forum, annual ASG Summer Workshop, and a Track II Dialogue with the China Central Party School. During his fellowship, Brent co-authored a report with the MITRE Corporation on integrated deterrence, titled, “A Sum Greater Than Its Parts: Integrated Deterrence and Strategic Competition.” Brent is a graduate from Duke University, where his studies focused on comparative politics, national security, and international relations. He completed his B.A. in political science, earning high distinction for his honors thesis on illiberal democracy in Hungary. As an undergraduate, Brent was on the student council of Duke’s Program in American Grand Strategy, and spent a semester in Denmark studying the European Union and Russian hybrid warfare.

2022

Chris Herrmann

Chris is currently the U.S. programme coordinator at the European Council on Foreign Relations. He previously joined the Aspen Strategy Group after earning his MPP from the Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. At the Korbel School, his studies were focused on international trade and finance as well as the confluence of sports and international politics. Prior to graduate school, Chris served as a Fulbright fellow in Athens, Greece, where his work focused on cross-cultural communication at Athens College and the Hellenic-American Educational Foundation. Before moving to Greece, Chris was a member of Teach for America and taught middle school English and coached high school lacrosse for four years. Chris graduated with a degree in sociology from Chapman University where he also worked with Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith, Bart Wilson, and Jan Osborn to develop the humanomics program, now formally housed in the Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy.

Georgiy Kent

Georgiy Kent is a master’s student at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), studying security, strategy, and statecraft in Europe and Asia. He is also a geopolitical risk analyst at Political Alpha, focusing on market moving political developments in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. As a Max Kampelman policy fellow at the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Georgiy contributed to political and economic projects to hold Russia accountable for its ongoing war in Ukraine. In 2022, Georgiy joined the Aspen Strategy Group from Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, where he served as lead research assistant for the Future of Diplomacy Project. There, he conducted in-depth research on U.S. diplomacy and international affairs, producing the center’s “A U.S. Diplomatic Service for the Twenty-First Century” report. Georgiy also interned for the Partnership for Public Service, contributing to the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government initiative. Before that, he worked at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, conducting research and producing events focusing on political, economic, and social changes in Eastern Europe. Georgiy graduated Harvard College cum laude with high honors in social studies and Slavic literatures and cultures. At Harvard, Georgiy specialized in socio-political developments in post-communist countries and wrote his senior thesis on Crimean Tatar civil society responses to Russia’s occupation of Crimea.

Maya Rosales

Maya Rosales is a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. State Department. As a 2022 Pickering fellow, she earned a master’s degree in international policy from Stanford University, specializing in energy and national security. Before joining the State Department, she served as a Brent Scowcroft fellow at the Aspen Institute. Her earlier experience includes roles at the Council on Foreign Relations and field research on the Mediterranean refugee crisis in Barcelona as a Gilman scholar. Maya participated in the Department of State’s Foreign Service Internship Program, published research on U.S. foreign policy in Latin America and the Caribbean, and interned for then-Senator Kamala Harris. She also worked with asylees at non-profit law firms and the UNHCR, supporting efforts to assist displaced communities. Originally from Northern California, she is a proud graduate of UC Berkeley.

2021

Marko Mavrovic

Marko Mavrovic is currently pursuing a PhD in international relations at the American University School of International Service. He was previously the manager of campus ethics programs at the Prindle Institute for Ethics, where he designed ethics education workshops for high school and college students and led the Institute’s first-year internship program. Previously, he was the Brent Scowcroft fellow at the Aspen Strategy Group and a student intern at the U.S. Consulate General Edinburgh. Marko graduated summa cum laude from DePauw University in 2019 with a B.A. in political science, and he earned a master’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics the following year.

Kelly Murphy

Kelly Murphy is a third year law student and student fellow with the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law. Kelly Murphy joined the Aspen Strategy Group in February 2021 from the Mediation Center of the Coastal Empire, where she served as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer mediating disputes and facilitating dialogues. She earned her M.Phil in conflict resolution and reconciliation from Trinity College Dublin, graduating with distinction and winning the James Haire Essay Prize for her dissertation on police reform in Northern Ireland. Prior to her graduate studies, Kelly was a research assistant for Chen & Cragen, a communications firm in Seattle, researching for clients like Microsoft and Intel. Kelly graduated magna cum laude from New York University Abu Dhabi in 2018 with a degree in political science and served as student body president.

2020

Emily Lawrence

Emily Lawrence is a former Scowcroft fellow and current Aspen Strategy Group fellow with the Aspen Strategy Group. She joined the Aspen Strategy Group from United Way of Northeast Florida where her work as affinity groups manager supported local programs in health and human services. Prior to this, she served as the deputy finance director for Ambassador Nancy Soderberg’s congressional campaign in Florida District 6. She earned her master’s in international relations from the London School of Economics where her studies focused on diplomacy, foreign policy analysis, and international political theory. Her graduate dissertation examined American space policy towards the Soviet Union and China through the lens of constructivist theory. In 2013, she interned in the UK Parliament in the office of the deputy leader of the House of Commons at the time, Tom Brake MP. She has been published on Project Syndicate as a co-author with Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter. She graduated summa cum laude from Florida State University with a BA in international affairs and a minor in economics. She is originally from Jacksonville, FL.

Tobias Brandt

Tobias Brandt is an independent research contractor, focusing on international money laundering and terrorist financing. As a former Scowcroft fellow at the Aspen Strategy Group (ASG), he helped organize and execute multiple high-level conferences including the ASG’s Summer Workshop, Aspen Security Forum, and Aspen Ministers Forum. Mr. Brandt completed his M.A. in statecraft and international affairs at the Institute of World Politics (IWP) in Washington, DC, graduating as salutatorian of the class of 2019. Throughout his graduate studies, he specialized in U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East, terrorism, and the transatlantic relationship. In his final semester at IWP, Mr. Brandt wrote an honors thesis on “Pushing Back Terrorist Propaganda and Countering Ideological Support for Militant Islamism.” He also completed an internship at the Hudson Institute and has been published in The National Interest, writing on the German-American relationship. Originally from Germany, Mr. Brandt received his B.A. in Middle Eastern studies from the University of Hamburg, where he also worked as research and teaching assistant.

2019

Kaitlyn Henderson
Adriana Ray
Tyler Headley

2018

Brian Hopkins
Megan Lamberth

2017

Kajsa Mayo
Ariel Fanger
Anand Raghuraman

2016

Rose Butchart
Daniel Ku
Calli Obern
Carolina Ponzeto

2015

Anna Giorgi
Ole Moehr
Mary Clare Rigali 

2014

Peter Walker Kaplan
Brandon Kist
Agnieszka Kurzej

2013

Kimberly Aagaard
Chris Cornillie
Alexis Stangarone

2012

Khaled Fayyad
Kevin Jones