The Ford School is pleased to announce the 2025 Weiser Diplomacy Center (WDC) fellows: Tooba Bilal (MPP ‘27), Annie Citron (MPP ‘27), Claire James (MPP ‘27), and Sowmya Raman (MPP ‘27). The WDC fellowship is a competitive award that offers tuition support to admitted MPP students with demonstrated academic achievement who express deep interest in pursuing knowledge and practical policy skills related to diplomacy and foreign affairs.
With the fellowship, students have the opportunity to expand on their interests in areas including international security, development, and human rights. Fellows regularly contribute to WDC events and participate in activities including conferences, policy simulation exercises, workshops, and career talks. They also meet with top international policy practitioners, expand their networks, and conduct research.
Tooba Bilal (MPP ‘27) is a policy practitioner from Pakistan committed to shaping public policy that reflects both global dynamics and local realities. Her work bridges diplomacy and development, grounded in the belief that effective policymaking must be inclusive, context-aware, and human-centered. She has contributed to foreign policy research at Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs think tank, with a focus on U.S.– Pakistan relations and regional multilateral forums such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Outside institutional settings, she has led community-based health campaigns in rural Balochistan, advancing access to information on maternal health and hygiene where public services remain scarce. Her engagement with public diplomacy includes organizing people-to-people exchange initiatives in collaboration with the South Korean Consulate and offering commentary on Pakistan’s foreign policy through platforms like Voice of America. Bilal’s current interests lie in cybersecurity policy, international cooperation, and translating policy into meaningful impact at the grassroots level.
Annie Citron (MPP ‘27), a Michigan native, majored in East Asian Studies at Yale University, where she studied the history and future of U.S. China policy. Her senior thesis analyzed China's state media coverage of international events, particularly foreign struggles for democracy during the Cold War. She interned at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of China and Mongolia, assisting with research on trade policies and supporting American businesses operating in China. She was a research assistant at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, where she contributed research on China's historical population policies and related public health outcomes. As a Yale-China John C. Daniels Fellow, Citron taught Chinese in New Haven Public Schools, fostering cultural exchange and language learning. She also studied in Taiwan for two summers, significantly enhancing her Mandarin proficiency and deepening her understanding of the region. Citron was principal horn of the Yale Symphony Orchestra and performed internationally in Mexico, Greece, North Macedonia, Taiwan, and the Czech Republic. Through the Weiser Diplomacy Fellowship, Citron aims to deepen her knowledge of U.S.-China diplomatic relations, with a particular interest in trade policy and cross-strait relations.
Claire James (MPP ‘27) earned her BA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied Economics and International Studies and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. Awarded the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s inaugural Wolff Fellowship, James spent a post-baccalaureate year gaining experience in education and rural development initiatives in Japan, South Korea, Malawi, and India before pursuing language studies in Argentina. Prior to joining the Ford School, James was an economic research analyst in the United States Treasury Department’s Office of International Affairs. She worked in the Office of Development Results and Accountability, evaluating financing proposals at the multilateral development banks. James is interested in the intersection of poverty, equitable economic development, and sustainable resource management.
Sowmya Raman (MPP ’27) joins the Ford School with over four years of experience working with government, international organizations, and nonprofits in India. Her work has focused on program monitoring and evaluation across sectors such as education, urban policy, and gender inclusion. Trained in both qualitative and quantitative research methods, she has contributed to several state-led evaluation reports. In 2022, she was a Local Pathways Fellow with the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, where she led a comparative study on informal settlements in the Global South and presented her findings at the International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD) in 2023. Raman also served as Curator of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers and is an active member of YOUNGO, the official youth constituency of the UNFCCC. In 2024, she was invited as a delegate to the Conference of Youth ahead of COP29. At the Ford School, she aims to deepen her expertise in program evaluation, international development, and diplomacy, with a focus on leveraging data and technology for social impact.
More news from the Ford School