PhD Public Affairs, Student Bios entry term 2018

terin@umn.edu

Bhavin Pradhan hails from Kathmandu, Nepal where he completed his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Tribhuvan University. He has a masters in Energy Policy, Planning and Economics from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand where he was valedictorian of his Masters class and also received awards for academic excellence from AIT and the “National Academic Excellence Medal” awarded by the President of Nepal.

After his undergraduate degree, Bhavin worked at the German International Cooperation (GIZ) as a Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor in renewable energy projects aimed at providing electricity access to rural areas in Nepal. Bhavin traveled extensively throughout rural Nepal implementing grid electrification, micro-hydro power plant, and solar home lighting projects. Bhavin’s research interests lies in understanding energy systems in urban areas, electric mobility and policy options, and energy systems planning.

Thalya Reyes is a proud Afro-Dominican woman, daughter of immigrant parents, and the first in her family to pursue a doctoral degree. Growing up in the Lower Passaic River watershed of northern New Jersey—an area with a long history of colonial, environmental, and economic injustices—motivated Thalya to be a positive force in her (global) community. She earned a B.A. in Environmental Studies (summa cum laude) with minors in Geography and Geographic Information Science from Rowan University while involved in environmental and student activism. After graduating, Thalya served two years in AmeriCorps: one term as a Watershed Ambassador with the NJ Department of Environmental Protection and one term with FoodCorps and the New Brunswick Community Farmers Market. Engaging children and youth in environmental education and urban agriculture in Spanish and English further fueled her passion for food sovereignty and environmental justice. These experiences led Thalya to the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University-New Brunswick where she earned a dual master's degree in Public Policy and City & Regional Planning (MPP/MCRP), concentrating in Transportation and Community Development. She was also a proud and active member of United Students Against Sweatshops Local 109 and Rutgers AAUP-AFT, the university faculty/TA union. Thalya is interested in studying the connections between infrastructure, military imperialism, the environment, and structural and psycho-affective violence; the spatialities and geographies of interracial solidarity and internationalist movements; and how Black and Indigenous communities mobilize for social, cultural, and political economic liberation. When she isn't researching or working in her community, Thalya likes to read and listen to music of many genres, cook, play the ukulele, run, and play trivia with her friends.

varsh011@umn.edu

Nishank was born and raised in India, where he completed his B.E. (Hons.) Electronics

& Instrumentation Engineering, and M.Sc. (Hons.) Mathematics from Birla Institute of

Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani. In his final year of undergraduate studies, an

internship with Association for Democratic Reforms on decriminalization of Indian

politics, and master’s thesis on implementation of Right to Education (RTE) Act at the

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, got him interested in the field of Public

Policy. After briefly working as a Business Analyst with Dell International Services,

Bengaluru for eight months, he went back to work full-time as a Research Associate at

the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. There, he worked on the

implementation and evaluation of the RTE Act in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra,

and Rajasthan for which he was selected as one of ‘30 under 30 leaders’ by BITS

Alumni Association under the category of ‘Community Service & Social

Entrepreneurship’.

Nishank joined the Humphrey School to pursue a master’s degree in Public Policy in

2016 and was subsequently admitted to the Ph.D. program in 2018. He currently

works at the Human Capital Research Collaborative (HCRC) on interventions in early

childhood education. He is also actively involved with the campus community, having

served as the President of Humphrey International Student Association (HISA), and

currently serving as the Associate Director of Programming for Council of Graduate

Students (COGS) at UMN.

Yi Wang was born and raised in Beijing, China. She earned her Masters in Urban Planning (2018) from Tsinghua University and her BA in Urban Planning (2015) from Tianjin University. Yi had a concentration on urban design in her undergraduate study. After entering grad school, her research interests gradually shifted from physical planning to the social and political dynamics undergirding the urban space. Concerning the issue of housing inequality in an urban context, Yi completed her master thesis on the residential differentiation of low-income households in Beijing. As a graduate research assistant at the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA), Yi is working with Professor Edward Goetz on projects that examine and evaluate the different types of interventions directed towards affordable housing development. In her Ph.D. program, Yi plans to center her research around urban redevelopment programs and affordable housing policies both in China and in the United States.