Sanford Students interested in Foreign Policy

Christian Chung

A man in a blue shirt with greenery in the background.

Class of 2026
christian.chung@duke.edu

Christian Chung, originally from Waxhaw, North Carolina, is a current student at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy pursuing a Master of Public Policy. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2024 with a B.S. in Biology, a B.A. in Public Policy (Science, Environmental, and International Development concentration), and a minor in Environmental Science. Throughout his undergraduate career, Christian embraced various roles in environmental engineering, science policy, public health, and environmental advocacy. His recent experiences include exploring water chemistry and developing novel purification technologies at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, analyzing inter- and intrastate PFAS (“forever chemical”) policies with the North Carolina Collaboratory, and conducting research at the Data-Driven EnviroLab related to climate policy, technology policy, and international development. Inspired by the balancing act between scientific ambition and practical policy, Christian aspires to pilot pragmatic and equitable solutions for environmental governance and diplomacy in his future career. Academia and work aside, Christian enjoys weight training, yoga, live music, traveling, and exploring new hobbies.

De’Omini Daniely

Class of 2025
deomini.daniely@duke.edu

De’Omini will be pursuing a Master’s of Public Policy with a concentration in International Development Policy.She recently graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor’s in Political Science. She has interned at the U.S House of Representatives in a congressional office, with state agencies such as the Georgia Commission on Equal Opportunity and with various statewide campaigns. A fun fact about her is that she has traveled to four foreign countries within the this past year.

Madeleine Fox

Class of 2025
madeleine.fox@duke.edu

Madeleine is from Charlotte, North Carolina and is excited to pursue her Master of Public Policy at Sanford. She is looking forward to being a member of the Sanford community and is excited to explore policy areas in greater depth, particularly Energy and Foreign Policy. Madeleine has been working for the last four years at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in Washington, D.C.. At CBO, she worked on budgetary projections and cost estimates for the National Park Service and trade policy. Before arriving at CBO, Madeleine graduated from Wake Forest University in 2019 with a double major in Economics and Politics & International Affairs. In her spare time, she enjoys running, playing tennis, and traveling.

Marcella Mercer

Class of 2026
marcella.mercer@duke.edu

Marcella Mercer is originally from Nebraska, but has most recently called Denver her home. Before coming to Duke, she served as project manager for the Colorado Governor’s Office of Economic Recovery, where she supported the state’s work in managing billions of dollars of federal stimulus funds. Prior to this role, she taught 6th and 7th Grade Reading and Social Studies in Denver Public Schools. Her investment in her students led her classes to achieve up to two times the national average growth in reading skills. She was also awarded a Fulbright fellowship to teach students and develop educational programming in Malaysia in 2019. Marcella graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. As a journalist, she wrote for state and national newspapers. Her work was featured in The Atlantic’s “More than 100 Exceptional Works of Journalism” and has earned several national honors, including “Story of the Year” at the Hearst Journalism Awards. In addition, she was a team member on a project that won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Journalism Grand Prize.

Maddie Sachtler

Class of 2026
maddie.sachtler@duke.edu

Maddie is a first Masters of Public Policy student at the Duke Sanford School of Public Policy. She is concentrating in National Security and Foreign Policy in hopes to study trade policy and the intersection between sanctions, humanitarian relief and human rights. Originally from the beautiful Truckee, California, she earned her bachelors degree in General Biology with a minor in Statistics from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and then joined the United States Peace Corps as a Secondary Education Science Teacher in the Adamawa region of Cameroon. Most recently, she has been in Boston, Massachusetts working in clinical trial management and regulatory affairs within the Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology and Information Center. In addition to being a superfan of David Fincher, in her free time she loves to climb mountains and visit historic US landmarks.

Sarah Salarano

Class of 2025
sarah.salarano@duke.edu

Sarah Salarano graduated from Emory University in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and minor in English. Since then, Sarah has been working as a paralegal and legal writer at an immigration law firm based in New York City. She also previously served as the Community Engagement Officer for Mind Bubble, an education non-profit, and interned at BerlinRosen and The Migrant and Immigrant Community Action (MICA) Project. Sarah grew up in 9 different countries before settling in the United States at age 18. She is originally from St. Louis, MO and Seoul, South Korea.