Usman Siddiqi

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Usman Siddiqi completed his PhD in Public Policy at Oregon State University as a Fulbright scholar. After his Bachelors, Masters, and MPhil in political science with distinctions, he taught at GC University Lahore, Pakistan, for about 10 years. Apart from teaching, he has served in various capacities including editor of the Journal of Political Science, deputy director of Centre of Excellence China Studies, advisor of Parliamentary Students Society, and focal person of various international conferences. In his PhD, he studied public perceptions of energy policy in the US. He worked with Hilary on research related to public adaptation and risk mitigation behaviors/policy support in the wake of extreme weather events. Upon graduate, he took a postdoctoral position at University of Bath.

Stephen Gunther

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Stephen Gunther completed his Masters of Public Policy at OSU in 2018. He received his Bachelor’s degree in political science from James Madison University. Prior to coming to OSU, he worked at a consulting firm in Washington, D.C., supporting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for nearly five years. He went on to work at the Center of Sustainable Energy in San Diego on issues related to distributed energy resources.

Umama Rahman

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Umama was born and raised in Dhaka, Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated cities in the world. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Economics from North South University in Bangladesh and her Master in Agricultural and Resource Economics with a minor in Statistics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. After her master’s, she went back to Bangladesh and worked as a lecturer at North South University. Her research areas are Energy Policy and Energy Economics. For her PhD in Public Policy, she is working with Hilary on projects related to public perceptions of offshore wind and lithium mining. In her free time, she watches movies, reads, tries new foods, spends time with family and friends, and enjoys nature.

Jos Grandolfo

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Jos Grandolfo enrolled in the Master of Public Policy program at OSU shortly after completing his BA in Sociology at SUNY New Paltz in 2012. At OSU, he participated in the International Comparative Rural Policy Studies summer institute in Bologna, Italy, and interned with a number of local agencies, including the City of Corvallis, League of Women Voters, and the Corvallis Environmental Center. His research assistantship on the USDA-funded project exploring renewable energy siting in the Western United States proved especially influential. This experience led to his essay on community response to wind farm siting proposals in Klickitat County, Washington, which he successfully defended in June 2015. His research interests include renewable energy policy, agricultural policy, and sustainable development, particularly in a rural context. Outside of the university, he enjoys gardening, cooking, and road trips.

Mahmood Muttaqee

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Mahmood Muttaqee completed his Ph.D. in Public Policy at Oregon State University in 2023. Hailing from Bangladesh, one of the countries worst affected by climate change, Mahmood developed a passion and zeal to acquire research capabilities in the field of environmental issues and sustainability. Before starting his Ph.D. at OSU, Mahmood completed two Masters, in Economics and Development Studies, and an undergraduate degree in Economics. His research interests center around the environmental problems that climate change is expediting and how to counter these impacts, particularly through the adoption of sustainable clean energy technologies. He worked with Hilary on a project exploring community perceptions of microgrids. After graduation, he became a postdoctoral scholar at University of Michigan.

Brittany Gaustad

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Brittany Gaustad graduated from OSU with a Master of Public Policy in 2015. She went on to become a research assistant at the Institute for Transportation Research and Education at North Caroline State University. Her research interests include environmental and energy policy, conserving energy through everyday behavior, social movements and the impacts of globalized commodities on environmental quality. While at OSU, she conducted research on perceptions of public participation processes in the siting of liquefied natural gas facilities in Astoria and Coos Bay, Oregon.

Maham Furqan

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Maham completed her PhD in Public Policy at Oregon State University in 2023. As a Fulbright scholar, she examined resilience valuation in microgrid development. She completed her master’s degree in economics from the Government College University (Lahore, Pakistan) and has been working in academia and the private sector since 2013.

Sadaf Photo

Sadaf Farooq

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Sadaf Farooq hails from Pakistan and did her undergraduate work in Politics & International Relations. She earned her master’s in development studies from the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics. During her master’s, she worked with UNICEF on a project focused on Universal Birth Registration in Pakistan. For her PhD, Sadaf studied local government sustainability programs in rural Cascadia.

Elizabeth Emery

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Elizabeth “Betsy” Emery completed her M.S. degree in the Forest Ecosystems and Society Program at Oregon State in 2020. Prior to joining the program, she helped establish the City of Flagstaff, Arizona’s Open Space Program, including working with stakeholder groups to acquire natural areas, develop management plans, establish natural resource policies, and implement infrastructure improvement projects. At OSU, Betsy’s research explored how people perceive risks and make decisions, with a specific focus on how people reason about the use of biotechnology to address forest health threats.

Ika Widiyasari

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Ika Widiyasari is a Master of Public Policy student at OSU. She received her Bachelor’s degree in economic statistics from the Institute of Statistics in Jakarta, Indonesia. Prior to coming to OSU, she worked in Indonesia’s Statistics Bureau for almost 7 years. This first-hand awareness of her home country’s impoverished social and economic conditions in remote areas prompted her to pursue a graduate degree in public policy with a focus on rural policy. She worked with Hilary on the community reactions to extreme weather project.