Introducing the 2025 McCourt Scholars

September 16, 2025

This story was written by Cady Stanton as part of the McCourt School’s annual alumni magazine, Policy Perspectives.

From Ukrainian revolution to Indian renewable energy planning, a wealth of diverse experience drives these new policymakers to improve lives worldwide.

Divyanshu Jha

Divyanshu Jha (MIDP ’27) has spent more than 10 years working at the highest levels of government administration in India. As a member of the Indian Civil Service, he has gone from grassroots, field-level management work to working at the state and federal level in various sectors, most recently with a focus on renewable energy transition planning for India’s rooftop solar program, which plans to add solar to around 10 million rooftops in the country.

At the McCourt School of Public Policy, Divyanshu intends to build a strong foundation in quantitative research to bring more data-centricity and better analytical frameworks to his policymaking work on the future of fossil fuels and renewable energy. Divyanshu has a B.A. in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

Sofia Kryshtal

Growing up and attending university in Ukraine, Sofia Kryshtal (MPM’26) witnessed the power of people and democracy, and saw education as her springboard to effect change during the country’s Revolution of Dignity.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, Sofia began working at various international and intergovernmental organizations implementing reforms and development projects country-wide, and later joined the United Nations Population Fund, where she managed the work of mobile teams providing a humanitarian response to the full-scale Russian invasion in Ukraine.

Sofia has also worked at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where she contributed to the Ukraine security sector portfolio. After her time at the McCourt School, she intends to work on post-war reconstruction and security management and an M.A. in Political Science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Amy Omondi

After growing up in Kenya and pursuing her education in Singapore and the U.S., Amy Omondi (MIDP’27) says she considers herself to be a huge beneficiary of international development programs, an experience that spurred her interest in impactful, global public policy.

Amy received her undergraduate degree in the U.S., then returned to her home country to work for various development organizations, including the Clinton Health Access Initiative in its programs providing drug distribution support.

Amy hopes to use her time at McCourt to leverage data and quantitative analysis as a tool to address the lack of direct consultation with Africans on how investment in countries on the continent should be utilized. She has a B.A. in international relations and affairs from Lewis & Clark College.

Paul Luu Van Lang

Paul Luu Van Lang (MPP’27) first discovered his interest in the tangible impact of community work while he was a special education tutor, and that passion grew when he joined the Peace Corps in Senegal. As part of the program, Paul focused on environmental education, plant propagation and natural resource management. In his work, he collaborated with local schools to create programs on waste management and tree planting.

After graduating from the McCourt School, Paul hopes to state his career with on-the-ground work in international development and eventually pivot to conducting research on poverty alleviation through quantitative research. Paul has a B.A. in international political economy from Colorado College.

Dana Moffat

After a decade of collegiate and professional rowing — including a stint on the U.S. National Rowing Team and a gold medal at the World Rowing Championships — Dana Moffat (MPP’27) enrolled at the McCourt School to gain an education focused on quantitative research as a method for finding solutions to economic disparities. After her rowing career, Moffat moved to Nashville to work in finance, which led to her discovery that she wanted to pursue a career in public policy centered on addressing wealth and income inequality.

Dana said she hopes to extend the love for teamwork and collaboration she gained from rowing to her interactions with peers and professors at Georgetown. She has a B.A. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.