2026 Cohort VIII Participants
Please note that the position and affiliation of each individual are from the time of application.
Stephen W. Ching is a foreign affairs and defense policy professional with extensive experience shaping U.S. national security strategy and international security cooperation. He currently serves as Country Director for Japan in the U.S. Air Force’s Office of International Affairs, where he advises senior leadership on political-military developments, alliance strategy, and regional security dynamics across the Indo-Pacific. In this role, he leads policy development and coordinates high-level engagements with U.S., Japanese, and partner-nation defense officials. Previously, he served as a Foreign Affairs Officer in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, where he managed a global conventional weapons destruction program and provided policy guidance on arms control, disarmament, and security assistance. He holds a M.P.A. from American University and a B.A. in International Affairs from the University of Colorado Boulder. He has received the Department of State Superior Honor Award twice and the Department of State Meritorious Honor Award three times for his contributions to U.S. foreign policy and international security initiatives.
William Chou is a senior fellow and deputy director of Hudson Institute’s Japan Chair. His work at Hudson focuses on the United States’ relationship with Japan and other Indo-Pacific issues, especially economic security, trade and investment, and regional partnerships. His recent projects include analyses of the Nippon Steel–US Steel partnership, economic security cooperation among the US, Japan, and the European Union, automotive and critical mineral supply chains, and US industrial and trade initiatives around the world. He writes and speaks regularly on policy issues, with his analysis appearing in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Politico, The Washington Post, Nikkei, The New York Times, and the Financial Times. He holds a B.A. in history from Yale and a Ph.D. in history from the Ohio State University. He is a former fellow at the Smithsonian, the Clements Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Tokyo. He began his career as a research analyst at the Institute for Defense Analyses during the Iraq War.
Mizumi Dutcher is a Doctor of International Affairs (DIA) candidate at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), specializing in East Asian security. She most recently served as a Foreign Policy Fellow in the U.S. House of Representatives, supporting the Indo-Pacific Subcommittee under Ranking Member Rep. Ami Bera. During her fellowship, she contributed to multiple legislative initiatives, including the U.S.-Japan-ROK Trilateral Cooperation Act (H.R. 3429), and drafted House resolutions on U.S.-Taiwan relations and China’s political influence operations. Prior to her fellowship, she served as a Resident Fellow at the German Marshall Fund. She also brings extensive experience as a journalist, having served as Washington Bureau Chief for Fuji Television (from 2018 to 2022), covered Japanese domestic politics with a focus on the Kōchikai faction, and reported on Sino-Japanese relations from Beijing Bureau.
Anne Giblin Gedacht is an Associate Professor of Japanese History at Seton Hall University who specializes in the social and cultural history of modern Japan from 1852-1953. Her interests include Japanese migration, expatriate identity, disaster studies, dark tourism, and memory. In 2022 she published her first book, Tohoku Unbounded: Regional Identity and the Mobile Subject in Prewar Japan, which examined the domestic history of Japanese regionalism using a global perspective with case studies in the Philippines, colonial Manchuria, Canada, the United States, and Brazil. Her current project, From Everywhere and Nowhere: Japanese Expatriate Identities in the Era of Globalization, illustrates malleability of nationalism as it becomes shaped over the course of multiple transnational relocations using the lens of national disaster and dark tourism. Over the years, her research has been funded organizations like the Japan Foundation, the Doris G. Quinn Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education. She holds a B.A. in East Asian History from the University of Chicago, an M.A. in History from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Ph.D. in Japanese History from UW-Madison.
Yuji Idomoto is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Maritime Safety and Security Studies (CeMaS) at the Japan Coast Guard Academy. Concurrently, he also teaches Japanese foreign and security policy at Sophia University as an Adjunct Lecturer. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Scholar at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego. His research includes the military dynamics between rising powers and their neighbors, Japanese security policy, and maritime security issues in East Asia. His current book project examines how enduring material and political constraints on both China and its neighbors create a pattern of “constrained peace” in the Indo‑Pacific, limiting China’s ability to coerce and preventing regional states from engaging in full‑scale military buildups. Before entering academia, he served for nearly a decade in the Japanese Ministry of Defense and the Cabinet Office. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Southern California.
Robin Kietlinski is a Professor of History at LaGuardia Community College of the City University of New York (CUNY), where she teaches courses in East Asian and Global History. Prior to joining LaGuardia’s faculty in 2012, she taught history at Baruch College and Fordham University. Her current research is on the origins of the U.S.-Japan relationship, with a focus on Townsend Harris, who both founded CUNY in the 1840s and served as the first American Consul General to Japan in the 1850s-60s. Her interest in diplomacy stems in large part from her experience growing up abroad as the daughter of a U.S. foreign service officer. Her previous scholarship focused primarily on the ways in which sports have shaped modern Japan, and how Japan has shaped modern sports, including her book titled Japanese Women and Sport: Beyond Baseball and Sumo (Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2012). Dr. Kietlinski was a 2019/2022 Fulbright Research Scholar at the University of Tsukuba, where she carried out research on Olympic sustainability initiatives and Olympic dissent groups in Japan. She holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, all in interdisciplinary programs of East Asian Languages and Civilizations.
Wendy Leutert is an Associate Professor and the GLP-Ming Z. Mei Chair of Chinese Economics and Trade in the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University. Her research examines China’s politics and economy, with a focus on state-market relations and the reform and global expansion of Chinese state-owned enterprises. She also studies Japan-China relations, including Japan’s role in China’s economic reform process. Her book, Chinese State-Owned Enterprises: Leadership, Reform, and Internationalization (Cambridge University Press, 2024), was named a 2025 Choice Outstanding Academic Title. In 2026–27, she will be a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. She is a recipient of the Emerging Scholars Policy Prize from Foreign Affairs and University of Pennsylvania Perry World House and was previously a Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Fellow in Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan. She holds a Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University, an M.A. in international relations from Tsinghua University, and a B.A. in political science and philosophy from Wellesley College.
Daniel Longo is an Analyst in Foreign Affairs at the Congressional Research Service (CRS). He specializes in Japanese politics, the U.S.-Japan and U.S.-South Korea military alliances, and security developments on the Korean Peninsula. Previously, he was a Political Advisor at the Japanese Consulate in Boston and an Assistant Language Teacher on the Japan Exchange & Teaching (JET) Program in Asuka Village, Nara Prefecture. He also covered the U.S. Congress as a reporter for The Asahi Shimbun’s Washington, DC, office. A New York native, he holds an M.A. in International Affairs from Tufts University and a B.S. in Broadcast Journalism from Syracuse University. He is fluent in Japanese.
Alexandra Mathieu is a political scientist focusing on East Asian regional politics and Japanese foreign and domestic politics. Her research analyzes the role of international status concerns in political decision making and their effects on public opinion and state behavior both within Japan and globally. She is currently the Japan Foundation Postdoctoral Associate in East Asian Studies at Yale University’s Council on East Asian Studies, where she helps organize the “Japan as Future” Japanese social science lecture series. She holds a B.A. in Government and Legal Studies and Asian Studies from Bowdoin College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University. Prior to her postdoc, she was also a Visiting Research Fellow at Waseda University’s Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies in 2023.
Alexandra Melillo is an Associate Vice President at The Asia Group, where she supports the firm’s Japan portfolio. She provides clients with detailed research and analysis on market and regulatory trends in key industries in Japan, primarily focusing on Japan’s pharmaceutical and healthcare market. Prior to joining The Asia Group, she worked at the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) as the External Affairs Coordinator for U.S. Government Affairs. As an ACCJ Fellow, Alex investigated Japan’s healthcare and corporate governance policies, drafting reports that were used in the ACCJ’s 2017 Third Arrow of Abenomics: A Portrait of Evolving Change. Prior to her time at the ACCJ, she worked as an Assistant Language Teacher and Regional Representative in Takaoka City, Toyama Prefecture for the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program from 2012-2015. She holds a B.A. in business administration and minors in East Asian studies and international relations from Saint Michael’s College. She holds an M.A. in international policy with a focus on East Asia and health policy from George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.
Colin Moreshead is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations at Harvard University, specializing in Japanese politics and contemporary political media. his research examines how shifting media landscapes shape political communication and public opinion. His book project, Mediating Power, traces the political consequences of digital and social media in 21st-century Japan. His comparative work on public service media and public diplomacy has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science. Before academia, he worked as a journalist in Tokyo. He holds a B.A. in Economics and East Asian Studies from Wesleyan University, an M.A. from Yale University’s Council on East Asian Studies, and an M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University.
Sayuri Romei is the Senior Fellow for Japan at the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific program. She leads work on Japan and heads the Japan Trilateral Forum and the Young Strategists Forum. Her research focuses on US-Japan-Europe relations and security issues in the Indo-Pacific. She was previously an Associate Director of Programs at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, where she was responsible for the Next Generation of US-Japan Nuclear Experts program and the Mansfield Forum on Energy and Climate Change, among other initiatives. She was also a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the RAND Corporation, a Public Policy Fellow at the Wilson Center, the Fellow for Security and Foreign Affairs at Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA, and a MacArthur Nuclear Security Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. She holds B.A. degrees in English language and literature from the University of Sorbonne, and in international relations from the University of Roma La Sapienza, and an M.A. in international relations and a Ph.D. in political science from Roma Tre University. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, Kyodo News, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and The Air Force Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, among other outlets. She has appeared on BBC World News, the BBC World Service, and the PBS NewsHour to comment on security issues in East Asia. She speaks Italian, French, and Japanese, and is studying Korean.
Mariko Sato is a principal reporter at NHK, Japan’s public broadcaster. She began her journalism career in NHK’s Fukushima bureau, where she covered the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake, reporting on bereaved families and individuals displaced by the nuclear power plant accident. From 2021 to 2024, she served as a breaking news correspondent in New York, covering major international developments. She later anchored NHK’s flagship primetime news program, News Watch 9. Her reporting has covered a wide range of topics, including breaking news, disaster coverage, U.S. elections, gender issues, environmental challenges, and culture. She was a mentor for the TOMODACHI Women’s Empowerment Program 2025, organized by the U.S.-Japan Council, and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP): Women in Politics and Civil Society in 2021. She holds a B.A. in Law from Keio University and studied journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a scholarship student.
Nobuhiko Tamaki is a professor in the Faculty of Law, Chuo University, Japan, and a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the University of Tokyo. His research focuses on alliance politics and international relations in the Asia-Pacific. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo, and pursued research at Boston University from 2009 to 2010 as a Fulbright student and at Yale University from 2011 to 2012 as a Visiting Assistant in Research. He is the author of “When the Empire Yields: Politics of Reward and Coercion in American Asymmetric Alliances” (Iwanami Shoten, 2024; in Japanese), which received the Sakurada-kai Award for Political Studies, Gold Medal, in January 2026. His recent publications also include “Japan’s Quest for a Rules-based International Order: The Japan-U.S. Alliance and the Decline of U.S. Liberal Hegemony,” Contemporary Politics, Vol. 26, No. 4 (2020); “Japan and International Organizations” (with Phillip Y. Lipscy), in Robert J. Pekkanen and Saadia M. Pekkanen eds., The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Politics (Oxford University Press, 2022); and “Like-Minded Allies? Indo-Pacific Partners’ Views on Possible Changes in the U.S. Relationship with Taiwan” (with Jeffrey W. Hornung, Miranda Priebe, Bryan Rooney, M. Patrick Hulme, and Yu Inagaki), RAND Corporation, RR-A739-7, 2023.
Charmaine N. Willis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Geography at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Her research sits at the intersection of collective action and security with a focus on East and Southeast Asia. In the realm of security, her research examines the causes and consequences of US foreign policy, with an emphasis on the US military abroad and economic sanctions. Most of this work explores public opinion about and protests against the U.S. military, including her book project, which draws upon fieldwork in military hosting communities in Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines. Her work has appeared in several academic journals, including the Asian Journal of Comparative Politics, Foreign Policy Analysis, Global Studies Quarterly, International Studies Perspectives, International Studies Review, the Journal of Civil Society, Social Movement Studies, Small Wars and Insurgencies, and Terrorism and Political Violence. Her first book, with Keith A. Preble, is Trading with Pariahs: Trade Networks and The Failure of Economic Sanctions (2024), which employs Farrell and Newman’s (2019) Weaponized Interdependence framework to the study of economic sanctions through the use of social network analysis.