Syaru Shirley Lin, research professor at the Miller Center and a nonresident senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, teaches at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tsinghua University in Beijing, and National Chengchi University in Taipei. Lin is the founder and chair of the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation (CAPRI) and a steering committee member of the Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience under the World Economic Forum.
Her book, Taiwan’s China Dilemma, analyzes the impact of the evolution of Taiwanese national identity on cross-Strait economic policy. Lin is currently writing a book on the challenges facing high-income societies in Asia Pacific, including inequality, demographic decline, inadequate policy and technological innovation, and threats to public health and environmental sustainability. Her commentaries frequently appear in both English and Chinese media. Previously, she was a partner at Goldman Sachs, where she led the firm’s private equity and venture capital efforts in Asia.
Yulan Hsu joined CAPRI in 2022. Yulan has been involved in non-profit organizations (NPOs) management in Taiwan for over a decade, and currently serves as Director of Taiwan Women’s Link. She has extensive knowledge of strategic planning and interdepartmental coordination to assist decision-making in the organization and advise its long-term development.
Throughout her career, Yulan has held a strong commitment to women’s rights and social equality. She has led and contributed to various Taiwanese NPOs, including the National Alliance of Taiwan Women’s Associations, Legal Aid Foundation, Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation, and Ama Museum.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from National Taiwan University and a master’s degree in sociology from Soochow University.
Caroline Fried joined the team that founded CAPRI in 2021. She has research experience in the economics, politics, development, and history of the Asia Pacific, particularly Taiwan and China. She has also researched the cross-border flows of students in higher education and the internationalization of higher education systems.
Before joining CAPRI, Caroline was an academic editor and research assistant in Taipei. Caroline hails from North Carolina, and she holds bachelor’s degrees in international affairs and history from Northeastern University, Boston, MA. Upon completing her undergraduate studies, Caroline was awarded a Fulbright grant to complete a master’s degree in Asia-Pacific studies at National Chengchi University, Taipei. She has called Taipei home since 2017.
Siwei Huang is part of the founding team of CAPRI. He has conducted interdisciplinary research on Taiwan, Hong Kong, and international affairs. Specifically, he has done research on the evolution of identity in Taiwan and Hong Kong, especially in the context of their relations with China. He has also examined the issues of environmental sustainability and internationalization in Taiwan, as well as the policy-making process in Hong Kong and its implications for state-society relations. He closely monitors developments in US-China relations and tracks how they affect various stakeholders in Asia.
Before joining CAPRI, Siwei was a research assistant at the Department of Social Sciences, Education University of Hong Kong. A native of Hunan, Siwei graduated from Hong Kong Baptist University in applied economics with First Honors and received his master’s degree in global political economy from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Having experienced the global-local nexus in Asia’s World City, Siwei values diversity and openness in the formation of a more vibrant and inclusive community.
Sudeep Agarwal joined CAPRI in November 2023. Prior to that, he worked as a medical writer and editor of academic papers, abstracts, and medical articles for nearly 10 years.
He obtained his medical degree in 2011, but decided to pursue a field that combined his interests in medicine and languages - academic editing. He has extensive experience in editing research papers, books, and conference proceedings and was certified by the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences (BELS) in 2016. He has also worked on developing a grammar-checking software tool for academic documents and participated in seminars on linguistics and natural language processing.
Sudeep moved to Taipei from Mumbai in 2020. He loves reading, languages, hiking, and board games.
Samuel joined CAPRI in January 2024 after a varied career in journalism, communications, and entrepreneurship in Hong Kong and Taiwan. His reporting experiences range from talking to culture figures for Monocle, to covering the capital markets in Asia for Reuters and Acuris. He was also on the South China Morning Post team nominated for the 2015 Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award for reporting on the 2014 Hong Kong pro-democracy protests.
Beyond journalism, he led media and community engagement campaigns at a major hospital in Hong Kong and co-founded a start-up in 2021 that bridges freelance teachers with parents in Taiwan to create tailor-made classes for children. He has been based mainly in Taipei since 2015. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and communications from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Austen joined CAPRI in December 2022. Prior to joining CAPRI, she coordinated several international programs at National Chengchi University (NCCU). She served as the dean’s secretary at the College of Global Banking and Finance at NCCU, where she managed budgeting, projects, and managerial administration to ensure the smooth and efficient running of the college’s operations.
Austen received her M.A. from Durham University, U.K., specializing in democratization in East Asia. She also studied English literature at National Sun Yat-Sen University in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Dr. Christine Cook is a visiting assistant professor at National Chengchi University. She specializes in communication science and media psychology and is active in the International Communication Association (ICA). She is also a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication and the Journal of Media Psychology. The broad goals of her work are to increase online civility, and her work with CAPRI focuses on bringing the Asian perspective to work focused traditionally in the Western world.
Kirsten Lianne Mae C. Dedase joined CAPRI in 2024, transitioning from her previous role as a sustainable banking specialist for an international NGO. Prior to that, she held positions as a senior researcher and project manager in academia, alongside her role as a senior lecturer teaching Public Administration and Economic Systems. Before entering academia, Kirsten gained extensive experience in business lending and finance, focusing on evaluating large corporations and small and midsize enterprises (SMEs).
With academic credentials in both public and private management, Kirsten holds a bachelor’s in public administration and a master’s in business management from the University of the Philippines. She aims to leverage her academic background to contribute to the field of international affairs. Kirsten’s research interests span disaster risk and climate financing, sustainable financing, international finance, and studies on MSMEs and other businesses.
Makaela Burch joined CAPRI in August 2024 as a Princeton in Asia fellow. She graduated from Grinnell College in 2022 with a bachelor’s in political science with concentrations in global development studies and environmental studies. She completed a master’s in city and regional planning from Georgia Tech with a focus on urban sustainability and environmental management.
At Georgia Tech, she served as a research assistant for the EcoUrban lab, studying the impacts of public policy on urban design and sustainability. She has professional experience in community development, environmental health and justice, and economic resilience.
Outside of work, Makaela enjoys language learning and travel, as well as ice skating and exploring nature.
Sunny Peng joined CAPRI in September 2024. She holds a master’s degree in diplomacy from National Chengchi University focusing on Indo-Pacific studies. For her thesis, she conducted a comparative analysis of the Indo-Pacific strategies of the US and the European Union.
Before joining CAPRI, Sunny worked in business development at a tech company. She also served as a research assistant at the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) within the Institute of International Relations. She also interned at the Taiwan Council for U.S. Affairs, a department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and at the Asia-Pacific Bureau of Reporters Without Borders.
In her free time, Sunny enjoys traveling and hiking.
Sophie Chen graduated with a degree in political science, specializing in international relations, from Chung Cheng University. Her research interests include regional peace, international politics, and gender and identity. Her professional training equipped her with qualitative and quantitative skills, and she has conducted electoral behavior research based on Taiwanese voter identities.
She has experience in marketing, administration, industry analysis, Japanese translation, teaching, content writing, and social media. She was a one-year exchange student in Spain. She also worked as a marketing intern at a marketing company and at Chung Cheng University to promote study tours. She also served as a college ambassador at the European Education Fair, generating social media content, and as an intern at APh ePower, where she was responsible for data collection and analysis.
Max Getty is a graduate of NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualised Study, where he studied the relationship between and evolution of politics and media. His colloquium examined the changes in the media and political landscape before and after the abolition of the Fairness Doctrine.
During his time at NYU, he developed his journalistic skills on the news desk at Washington Square News and as an editor for the American Public Policy Review, focusing on student–administration relations, labor, and energy policy. His professional experience also includes financial planning and government roles, where he gained valuable insights into financial analysis and policymaking.
Outside of his professional work, Max is passionate about language, rowing, and cinema.
Sylvia joined CAPRI in October 2022 as a visual communication designer. She designs all of CAPRI’s research and communications materials. She has designed and built and currently maintains CAPRI website; she also helps maintain the Reform for Resilience Commission’s website.
Before joining CAPRI, she was a full-time staff member at Fulbright Taiwan, where she was in charge of graphics, website management, and layout design. Sylvia earned her bachelor’s degree in advertising from National Chengchi University (NCCU), with a focus on graphic design and marketing.
Sylvia moved to Taipei from Taichung in 2016. She speaks English and Japanese, loves ramen, and is great at illustrations.
Jacob Libby is a recent graduate from a two-year master’s program at the Yenching Academy of Peking University, where his research focused on the geopolitics of the US-China-Taiwan semiconductor trade and the broader challenges associated with export controls, foreign direct investment, and industrial policy in the region. Previously, Jacob completed his undergraduate degree in foreign affairs and Spanish at the University of Virginia. He has worked at the US Department of State, the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center, SupChina, and the Miller Center at UVA, conducting research on contemporary US-China relations and East Asian politics and economics.
He is deeply interested in the growth of East Asia’s technology sphere and plans to dedicate his career to fostering positive, productive relations between the US and East Asia toward a prosperous and innovative future in the face of collective challenges such as climate change and democratic erosion. He is currently pursuing a law degree at Harvard Law School in furtherance of that goal.
Joshua McCray is a combination Master of Public Policy and Master of Public Health Candidate at the University of Virginia. Before starting graduate school, he worked as a clinical research coordinator and served as a student representative to the Virginia Rural Health Association Board of Directors. Joshua holds bachelor’s degrees in Biochemistry and History from the University of Virginia’s College at Wise (UVA Wise). In addition, he was recently selected as a Tadler Fellow at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Driven by his passion for addressing public health disparities and improving rural resilience, he has completed research on drinking water contamination in rural Appalachia and worked with the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) to advertise, coordinate, and distribute COVID-19 vaccinations in Southwest Virginia. Joshua’s research interests lie in global rural health and healthcare insurance markets. He is excited to join CAPRI this summer to further develop his policy research and analysis skills, increase his comprehension of healthcare delivery in the Asia-Pacific, and contribute to global health policy discussions.
Ben Makarechian is a current 4th year undergraduate student at the University of Virginia’s Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, where he is majoring in public policy and economics and a minoring in Chinese. His interests include economic development and Chinese foreign policy.
During his time at UVA, his writing on US-China relations has been featured in the Virginia Journal of International Affairs and the Pacific Council Magazine. He has developed leadership skills as a member of UVA’s historic Honor Committee and president of its Rugby Club. In summer 2024, Ben spent nine weeks in Beijing developing his Chinese language skills after being awarded the Monaghan Scholarship by UVA’s Department of East Asian Languages, Literatures and Cultures.
Outside of his studies and extracurricular engagements, Ben enjoys weightlifting, hiking, and watching professional American football.
