Aspen Policy Academy

Introducing the Spring 2025 Policy Primer Cohort

  • Article Published April 10, 2025

We are thrilled to announce the Spring 2025 Policy Primer cohort.

The Policy Primer is a virtual and part-time program teaching the policy process to professionals with expertise across our four pillar areas: tech, science, the environment, and civic engagement. Beginning in March, participants engaged in several weeks of policy training before producing final projects to solve real-world problems for government stakeholders.

The Policy Program scholars are:

  • Abigail Oyekola, Electrical Engineer and PhD candidate at Howard University
  • Ada Sim, Head of Technology Programs at Emerson Collective
  • Ananthi Al Ramiah, Lead Policy Researcher on the AI Safety Camp project “Building the Pause Button: A Proposal for Compute Governance”
  • Andrew Estocin, project manager focused on child welfare and affordable housing 
  • Avani Wildani, AI, Privacy, and Systems/Formal Methods Research Manager at Cloudflare
  • Bailey D Johnson, Research Fellow at the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology
  • Candice Ammori, Founder and CEO of Climate Vine
  • Carolina Ramôa, Supervisory Pharmacologist at the US Food and Drug Administration in the Center for Tobacco Products
  • Charlotte Shurtz, refugee advocate specializing in resettlement and labor mobility pathways for displaced individuals
  • Çiğdem Patlak, Technology consultant with a focus on Responsible AI and AI Safety
  • Desiree Junfijiah, researcher on AI policy, governance, and digital literacy
  • Desiree Martinez, organizer dedicated to youth leadership and education equity
  • Ethan Stackpole, Director of Marketing and Communications at CarbonCapture Inc.
  • Hannah Somers, US Program Manager at Talent Beyond Boundaries
  • Iris Vold, Civic Tech Product Designer at Alpha Omega
  • Janice Mak, Assistant Director of Curriculum and Pedagogy at Arizona State University’s Learning Engineering Institute
  • Jasmine Jackson, Founder and Executive Director of The Accelerated Training Program
  • Julia Niederman, director of creative services and front-end technologies
  • Kiranmayee Suryadevara, Founder and Principal Consultant at Xogenous Labs
  • Nishchal Chaudhary, US Presidential Innovation Fellow
  • Paola Moreno-Roman, Professor at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia and a Strategic Partnerships Consultant at Foldscope Instruments, Inc.
  • Rudy Arellano, Program Analyst at the DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education
  • Saba Khalid, Tech-to-Market Advisor at ARPA-E
  • Sanur Sharma, researcher in AI governance and safety
  • Sarayu Madhiyazhagan, urban planner and product designer
  • Sayan Biswas, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and a Department of Energy Science and Technology Policy Fellow
  • Sruti Modekurty, PhD researcher at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ
  • Susanne Tedrick, Technical Customer Success Manager at Amazon Web Services
  • Tim Pappa, Incident Response Engineer – Cyber Deception Strategy, Content Development, and Marketing at Walmart Global Tech
  • Will Alpine, Co-Founder of the Enabled Emissions Campaign
  • Yakaira Nunez, product, insights, and research leader

You can learn more about the Policy Primer program here. You can check out the Policy Primer Scholars’ full bios here.