Originally from Muscatine, Iowa, Erin Oppel is a graduate candidate in the Master of Science in Foreign Service program at Georgetown University, pursuing a concentration in Global, Politics, and Security, and a certification in Diplomatic Studies. Erin's interests include conflict management, great power competition, international law, and international organizations.

Erin is currently a Research Assistant at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology. Her previous roles include internships at the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the United Nations, Maldives Mission to the United Nations, the Office of the President of the General Assembly, and the Project 2049 Institute. During the 2022-2023 Academic Year, Erin was a Blakemore Freeman Fellow studying Mandarin Chinese at National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan.

Erin earned her Bachelor of Arts in Government with a focus on international relations and East Asian Studies from Smith College in 2022 where she wrote an honors thesis on the effects of Democratic Backsliding on United Nations' Elections and was a Rhodes Scholar Finalist. She speaks English and Mandarin Chinese, with limited proficiency in Arabic.

Following graduation from Georgetown, Erin hopes to work on conflict management and resolution policy, with a focus on Asia and the Middle East.