Experts

Vasey Fellows serve as junior researchers at the Pacific Forum to gain an appreciation of Asia-Pacific economic and security affairs and policymaking challenges. The Vasey Fellowship is intended to provide greater opportunity to the community of young, promising Asian scholars to develop hands-on expertise in U.S.-Asia policy issues. The Fellowship is available for periods ranging from three months to one year, and the selected Vasey Fellow will conduct independent research as well as assist in Pacific Forum research and programs. The Vasey Fellow receives a modest cost of living stipend but should otherwise be self-sufficient.

The deadline for the next round of applications is December 1, 2007. The selection will be announced at the end of December 2007.

Vasey Fellow application:
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The Pacific Forum CSIS has established an endowment fund to provide long-term funding for this fellowship program. “We want to help build the next generation of leaders who will appreciate the importance of U.S. ties to the region,” said Mr. Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum. "The Vasey Fellow program is part of our commitment to that goal."

The Pacific Forum CSIS welcomes contributions to the Vasey Fellowship Endowment Program. Contributions are fully tax deductible and can be sent to the Pacific Forum CSIS, attn: Vasey Fellow Program.

Brunei, Cambodia, China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, East Timor, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam

These include but are not limited to:
Hawaii Pacific University
University of Hawaii
Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies
East-West Center
Japan-America Society of Hawaii
Asia and Pacific Affairs Council

Mr. Junbeom Pyon, 2006-2007 Vasey Fellow, is from Seoul, Korea. He received his M.A. in Government and B.A. in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University. As an undergraduate, he was awarded the Ripon William F. Clinger Fellowship. Prior to working at Pacific Forum, Mr. Pyon was an intern in the Office of the Under Secretary General in the United Nations Department for Disarmament Affairs, where he prepared briefs on Korean Peninsula and Iranian nuclear issues and compiled Disarmament Digest. He interned at the Brookings Institution, the Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C., and the Seoul-based Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.

Mr. Qinghong Wang is a doctoral candidate in Political Science at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, is a Pacific Forum Young Leader, and is a 2006-2007 Vasey Fellow. He is from Beijing, China. Mr. Wang received his B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature from Beijing University in 1999 and an M.A. in Chinese Studies and an M.A. in Political Science both from the University of Hawaii in 2003. He previously worked as a language instructor at both UH and at the United States Air Force Academy’s Chinese Language Immersion Program at the Japan-American Institute of Management Science.

Ms. Jiyon Shin was a member of the Pacific Forum’s Young Leader Program, and served as a Vasey Fellow at the Pacific Forum CSIS in the summer of 2006. Currently an undergraduate at Ewha Women’s University, she specializes in International Studies, focusing on diplomacy and security in Northeast Asia, and spent a year as an exchange student at University of Hawaii 2005-2006. A policy advisor at the Korean University Students’ Politics & Diplomacy Research Association (KPDRA), she was also the chief representative of the Ewha Women’s University group of KPDRA, and vice president of KPDRA, where her research included relations between the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK), and anti-American sentiment among ROK’s young generation. Ms. Shin was a member of the North Korea Security Research Group in Ewha Women’s University, and assisted several international conferences related to North Korean refugees, and the UN ministerial conference on sustainable environment at the Environment and Sustainable Development Division office of UNESCAP.

Ms. Claire Bai, hailing from Beijing, China, is the 2005 Vasey Fellow at Pacific Forum CSIS. She has been a participant in the Pacific Forum’s Young Leaders Progam since 2004. Ms. Bai received her B.A. in International Relations and Economics from Peking University in 2004. She worked as a 2004-2005 George Fellow at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia on various projects pertaining to conflict resolution, public health, and democratic governance. Her research interests include China's peaceful transition, U.S.-East Asia relations, nonproliferation, and Northeast Asian security. Ms. Bai has worked for the China Institute of International Studies, Hill & Knowlton, Jane Goodall Institute, and the Beijing Youth Daily .

Ms. Hyun Jung Jo Choi received her M.A. in Law and Diplomacy at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. A native of South Korea who grew up in Singapore, Ms. Choi received her B.A. in International Relations and Economics at Tufts University. After Tufts, she worked as an investment banking analyst with Lehman Brothers until the desire to be more involved in global affairs took her to Indonesia, where she worked as a researcher and consultant to a new political party in Jakarta. Ms. Choi also worked at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore, where she focused on creating personality and attack profiles on some of the world’s most wanted terrorists. She was a Summer 2005 Vasey Fellow at Pacific Forum CSIS, where she worked on nonproliferation issues, China-Southeast Asia relations, and terrorism in Southeast Asia.

Ms. Lena Kay, the 2004-2005 Vasey Fellow, is from Malaysia and has more than ten years of experience in management and consulting in the Asia-Pacific region. She obtained her M.B.A. from Imperial College/University of London, United Kingdom and a B.A.(cum laude) from Beloit College in the United States. Mrs. Kay was an adjunct faculty member at the School of Business, Singapore Management University as well as a consultant to UBS Warburg/Paine Webber. She has worked with the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies (IDSS) to examine competing conceptions of economic regionalism between APEC and ASEAN Plus Three.

Mr. Ronald Rodriguez, the 2004 Vasey Fellow, is from Manila, Philippines. He is currently a British Council Chevening Scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and a Pacific Forum CSIS Yuchengco Fellow. He served as officer-in-charge at the Strategic and Security Studies program at the Center for International Relations and Strategic Studies (CIRSS), as part-time lecturer at the International Studies Department of De La Salle University, and has been a columnist for The Philippines Today newspaper. He received his B.A. in Political Science (cum laude) from Ateneo de Naga University in the Philippines (1995), and his M.A. in Asian Studies (1996) from the University of the Philippines. He served as head of the Northeast Asia Research Program at the Foreign Service Institute-CIRSS and non-resident consultant in the Policy Studies and International Relations Unit of the Office of the Presidential Advisor for Special Concerns (2002-2003).

Ms. Ah-Young Kim, the 2003 Vasey Fellow, received her M.A. in international and China studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in December 2002. She studied at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. She received her B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in 2000. She was an intern at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and an editorial intern at The Korea Times in Seoul. She is currently Associate Expert of the Humanitarian Emergency Branch of the UN OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs).

Ms. Kazuko Hamada, the Spring 2003 Vasey Fellow, joined Pacific Forum CSIS as part of the International Professional Service Semester program at the Graduate School of International Policy Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS); she received her M.A. in December 2003 and a certificate in nonproliferation studies. She received her B.A. from MIIS in December 2001. She is currently a researcher at the Japan Atomic Energy Association.

Ms. Yumiko Nakagawa was the inaugural 2002 Vasey Fellow. Ms. Nakagawa is a 1999 graduate of Doshisha University in Kyoto and was the Nijima Fellow at Amherst College during 2000-2001. Ms. Nakagawa worked as research assistant for Professor Toshiya Hoshino at Osaka School of International Public Policy. She also worked at the Embassy of Japan in Afghanistan from February 2004 through June. She is currently a candidate for a masters degree at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.