The director and deputy director of the Strategic Education Initiative oversee all SEI programming and manage the student fellows. The current leadership team, Elizabeth Bachman (Director) and Michelle Zhang (Deputy Director) can be reached at [email protected].

Elizabeth Bachman, SEI Director

Elizabeth Bachman is a PhD student in the Department of Politics. Her research focuses on Chinese foreign policy and security issues. Prior to Princeton, she worked as an analyst in the Center for Naval Analyses' China and Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Division and was awarded a Fulbright to Taiwan. She holds an M.A. in East Asian studies from Stanford University and a B.A. in political science and Asian studies from Swarthmore College.  

Michelle Zhang, SEI Deputy Director

Michelle is a PhD student in Security Studies at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. Her research interests focus primarily on the issues of limited resources and competition in the space sector and how those aspects affect the policies driving the operationalization and commercialization of space technologies. She is also interested in the intersections between space and cybersecurity. Prior to Princeton, she worked for the FBI in the New York Field Office after interning in the Cincinnati Field Office. She holds a dual B.A. in English and Security & Intelligence with a minor in Japanese from The Ohio State University.