[ skip to content ]

More Information about this image

Participants gather for a group photo at the ODU Graduate Program in International Studies’ Annual Graduate Research Conference. College of Arts and Letters

Graduate Program in International StudiesAlumni

What Do Our Graduates Do With Their Degrees?

Published Authors

We have several GPIS alumni with published books, the latest with the prestigious Palgrave Macmillan.

Diplomats

Numerous GPIS alumni have become Department of State Foreign Service Officers, working everywhere around the world in service of the United States, from Mexico to Mauritania to Milan.

Faculty

GPIS graduates work as professors around the country and world. In an increasingly competitive job market, we place graduates into tenure-track positions.

Experts in a variety of fields, at home & abroad

Our graduates work everywhere, doing everything. Our alumni have worked in the private sector and for the government as analysts, researchers, policy practitioners, and educators.

Government

Department of State, Department of Energy, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Defense Intelligence Agency, FBI, City of Norfolk, Virginia Modeling and Simulation Center, NATO.

Private Sector

Booz Allen Hamilton, MITRE Corporation, SAIC, Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

Think Tanks

Brookings Institute, Chatham House

Non-profit, Non-governmental & Intergovernmental Organizations

Physicians for Peace, The Carter Center, European Inter-University Center for Human Rights and Democracy, Transparency International, the World Affairs Council, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).



Distinguished Alumni

Robert M. Antis (PhD, 2006) is Professor and Deputy Director of the Joint Advanced Warfighting School, Joint Forces Staff College, National Defense University.


Melodee Baines (PhD, 2013) is Asylum Officer at U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Greater New York City Area.


Anouar Boukhars (PhD, 2005) is nonresident scholar in Carnegie's Middle East Program and Associate Professor of International Relations at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland.


Scott Brunstetter (PhD, 2008) is Lead Strategic Planner with the National Intelligence Center in Washington, D.C. Previously he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship and a Presidential Management Fellowship.


Dovile Budryte (PhD, 2000) is Professor of Political Science at Georgia Gwinnett College, in Lawrenceville, Georgia. She was the recipient of the 2015 Regents Teaching Excellence Award for State Colleges for the University System of Georgia.


William Eliason (PhD, 2010) is Director of the National Defense University Press and Editor of Joint Force Quarterly, the professional military journal of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is also Adjunct Professor in the Security Studies Program Georgetown University-National Defense University) and Adjunct Professor in Defense Strategy and Resources at the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy at Ft McNair in Washington, DC.


Vladyslav Galushko (PhD, 2009) is Program Manager at the Open Society Initiative for Europe, in London, England.


Allison Greene (PhD, 2003) is Norwich University Associate Director for Culture for the Defense Language and National Security Education Office in Washington, D.C.


Omar Hawthorne (PhD, 2012) is Lecturer of Government in the University of the West Indies Department of International Relations in Jamaica.


Sabine Hirschauer (PhD, 2012) is Assistant Professor of Government at New Mexico State University/Las Cruces. She is the author of The Securitization of Rape: Women, War and Sexual Violence (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).


Sara Hoff (PhD, 2014) is with the U.S. Department of Energy Information Administration. In 2014, Sara was awarded a Presidential Management Fellowship.


Jack Kalpakian (PhD, 2000) is Associate Professor of International Studies at Al Akhawayn University, Morocco.


Thomas Lansford (PhD, 1999) is Professor of Political Science at the University of Southern Mississippi. He was Academic Dean of USM's Gulf Coast campus from 2009-2014. He has authored and edited more than 20 books.


Chunlong Lu (PhD, 2007) is Associate Dean of the School of Public Politics and Public Administration, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing.


Patrick Magee (PhD, 2005) is Senior Analyst at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in Washington D.C.


Eric Miller (PhD, 2002) is the Section Chief for political-military issues at US Africa Command, Molesworth, UK.


Katerina Oskarrson (PhD, 2014) is Deputy Chief Resilience Officer with the City of Norfolk. Formerly, she was a Knowledge Manager at the NATO Civil Military Fusion Center in Norfolk.


William Patterson (PhD, 2015) is a Department of State Foreign Service Officer stationed in Katmandu, Nepal. Formerly, he was the Criminal Justice program director at Paul D. Camp community college. Dr. Patterson is the author of Democratic Counterinsurgents: How Democracies Can Prevail in Irregular Warfare (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).


Carlos Gustavo Poggio Teixeira (PhD, 2011) is Professor and Department Chair at PUC-SP | Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo in Brazil. He is the author of Brazil, the United States, and the South American Subsystem: Regional Politics and the Absent Empire (Lexington Books, 2012).


Jennifer Schiff (PhD, 2010) is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of International Studies at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. In 2017, Dr. Jennifer Schiff received the Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award.


Manda Shemirani (PhD, 2010) is Vice president, Model Risk Management at Morgan and Stanley in London. She is the author of Sovereign Wealth Funds and International Political Economy (Ashgate, 2013).


Matthew Slater (PhD, 2002) is Senior Planning and Policy Analyst with the Marine Corps University, Center for Advanced Operation Culture Learning in Quantico.


Eva Svobodova (PhD, 2008) is Strategic Communications Advisor to Chairman of NATO Military Committee and Int'l Military Staff Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic. Formerly, Dr. Svobodova has worked as Defence Adviser with the Permanent Delegation of the Czech Republic to NATO, a Political Adviser with the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic, and a Senior Analyst and Adviser to the European Union Police Mission in Afghanistan.


Beyza Unal (PhD, 2014) is Research Analyst and William J. Fulbright Fellow at the think tank Chatham House in London. She makes frequent appearances on international media, including BBC, Radio 4, ITN, and ABC.


Kimberly Van Dyke Gilligan (PhD, 2012) is a Nuclear Nonproliferation Specialist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York.

Greg Bayes (2008) is a Media Analyst with Leonie in Kabul, Afghanistan. Prior to that, he was a Social Scientist with the Department of Defense Human Terrain Systems (HTS) in Kabul.


Jeffrey Becker (2002) is President and senior analyst at Context LLC, a defense consultancy based in Southeast Virginia. Mr. Becker is currently the Senior Futurist at the Joint Concepts Division of the Joint Staff J7.


Degi Betcher (2011) is an International Student Advisor at ODU. She also received her MPA from ODU in 2014.


Evan Campbell (2008) is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Portfolio Manager and Equity Analyst with Delphi Management in Boston, Massachusetts.


Neill Connor (2011) is Assistant Professor of Geography and Social Science Education at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi.


Samantha Golden (2017) was the sole recipient of the Department of State Frasure-Kruzel-Drew (FKD) Fellowship for 2018-2020, where she will be working for the Bureau of Political and Military Affairs in the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement.


Ryan Grizzle (2006) has been a Department of State Foreign Service Officer since 2009. He currently serves domestically as the Senior Public Diplomacy Desk Officer for West Africa covering the Sahel and Nigeria.


Laura Gwathmey (2010) is an Operation Specialist with Dominion Capital Partners in Norfolk, Virginia. Prior to that she was Director of Global Health Programs for Physicians for Peace in Norfolk.


Leslie Harlson (2006) is Project Manager for Undergraduate Initiatives at University of California at Berkeley.


Kathryn Holmgaard (2006) is a Department of State Foreign Service Officer currently stationed in Vienna, Austria.


Kathleen Hughes (2009) is an Experiment Designer for NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) in Norfolk, Virginia.


Ruslan Ismayil-zada (2012) is a Communications Officer for the United Nations Development Program in Baku, Azerbaijan. Prior to that, he worked as an External Affairs Officer at the Ministry of Taxes of the Republic of Azerbaijan.


Michael Jacobson (2008) is Field Artillery Branch Chief for the U.S. Army at Ft. Eustis, Virginia.


Dr. Daniel Kuthy (2006) is Assistant Professor at Brescia University in Owensboro, Kentucky. He received his Ph.D. from Georgia State University.


Alice Laubach (2017) is the Study Abroad Coordinator at ODU.

Molly McKnight Amador (2008) is a Department of State Foreign Service Officer stationed in Mexico City.


Rodrigo Mezu (2012) is Lieutenant Colonel in the Colombian Air Force. He is seeking his PhD in Political Science at the University of the Andes while teaching at the Colombian Air Force Post-Graduate School. Rodrigo was part of the military team that helped successfully negotiate the historic peace treaty with the FARC rebels.


Stefanie Nijssen (2010) is a political adviser to the UK government in London. Prior to that she worked as the Country Programme Lead for the anti-corruption NGO Transparency International UK's Defence and Security Programme.


Alicia Sunny Phillips (2004) is the Associate Director of the Student Center Association at Tidewater Community College (TCC) in Portsmouth, Virginia.


Dr. Asabe Poloma (2005) is the Assistant Dean for International Students and Associate Director of the Mellon Mayes Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) at Brown University. She received her Ph.D. in Higher Education from University of Massachusetts in 2011.


Savannah Russo (2012) is Senior Associate for Policy and Advocacy with Women Deliver in New York City.


Angelia Saunders (2013) is Assistant Director of the Anti-Trachoma campaign with the Carter Center, splitting her time between Atlanta, Georgia and East Africa.


Sydney Sheppard (2014) is a Pricing Analyst with Independent Container Line in Richmond, Virginia.


Cristin Orr Shiffer (2012) is Senior Advisor for Research and Policy for Blue Star Families, an advocacy group for military families.


Andrew Vincent (2004) is Database Administrator with the National Abortion Foundation in Washington, D.C.



Site Navigation

Experience Guaranteed

Enhance your college career by gaining relevant experience with the skills and knowledge needed for your future career. Discover our experiential learning opportunities.

Academic Days

Picture yourself in the classroom, speak with professors in your major, and meet current students.

Upcoming Events

From sports games to concerts and lectures, join the ODU community at a variety of campus events.