Huong Le
Vanessa Lê is a first-year graduate student in the M.S. Foreign Service program at Georgetown University. Born and raised in Vietnam, Vanessa takes interest in international affairs and sustainable development. She graduated from UC San Diego with a B.A. in International Studies-Sociology and minors in Environmental Studies and Music. Understanding sustainable development cannot exist without a decolonization framework, Vanessa sets her goal to integrate social justice into her academic and professional work. During her undergraduate studies, Vanessa was the co-director of the Student Sustainability Collective, a student-run, non-hierarchical collective on environmental justice. She worked with the student body to implement a zero-waste guideline for event organization and helped eliminate plastic waste in dining halls. At the height of COVID-19 pandemic, Vanessa led a successful open-letter campaign to demand the University of California Board of Regents better legal protections for international students in the United States against I.C.E. removal order. Before coming to Georgetown, Vanessa worked as a policy analyst for a non-governmental organization in San Diego on transportation electrification. Her research focused on creating an accessible transition to electric vehicles for low-income communities. In her free time, Vanessa enjoys picnicking with a good book and making her 120th Spotify playlist.
"I chose MSFS for its access to exceptional practitioners and its diverse student body. "