Isabella T. (IN A NUTSHELL)

Hi everyone! My name is Isabella, and I am currently a graduate student in international relations at Oxford University, where I am a Rhodes Scholar. Put simply, I am interested in the politics of pandemics - why do countries collaborate with or work against each other during global health emergencies? I explored this at Georgetown University during my undergraduate degree through global health governance research with Professors Rebecca Katz and Emily Mendenhall. I also worked in an ecological disease networking lab under Professor Shweta Bansal and Dr. Greg Albery studying how natural disasters like wildfires impact animal disease spread. After I graduated from Georgetown, I worked at the Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank in Washington D.C., researching and writing articles on COVID-19, monkeypox, the opioid crisis, and more. Because most of my work involves writing for non-experts, I love to help outline, compose, and edit essays (especially those tricky college ones!).

Outside of my academic work, I served as an emergency medical technician (EMT) and EMS/CPR instructor for four years. Being a pre-hospital provider has hugely shaped my interests in health and its systems globally, and I am passionate about sharing my experiences working on the ambulance and educating others about lifesaving skills! I am also a classically trained singer, with performance experience as an operatic soloist (Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, DC Arena Stage, DC Decatur House) and as a choralist specializing in Baroque and Renaissance eras (GU Chamber Singers, Choral Arts Society of Washington, Tanglewood Music Festival, St. John's College Chapel Choir). I speak English and Italian at a native level, and Korean at an advanced level, and have experience teaching language as an immersion counselor at Concordia Language Villages.