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Meet Mir Muhtadi Faiaz

Tell us a bit about yourself

I was originally born and brought up in Bangladesh, where my family still lives. I moved to Canada in 2014 and received my undergraduate degree from University of British Columbia (UBC) as a recipient of the International Leader of Tomorrow (ILOT) award. I am passionate about learning, social impact, improving public policies and translating research into policy practice to empower people. My defining values are curiosity, collaboration, and compassion. Before coming to UCSD, I worked in public sector consulting and for different public sector organizations, including the United Nations (UN) and a municipal government in Canada. I believe in the vital role that public and non-profit organizations play in defining the quality of life for people in our communities. At UCSD, I was involved with several student clubs including working as the Vice President of Academic Affairs at the Graduate and Professional Students Association. I received several awards including the Academic Achievement award, Doming Liu award, Best policy memo award and graduated as a dean's fellows from the School of Global Policy and Strategy.

What are you studying/researching?

My research interests include comparative politics, public policy, political economy, development, gender, and technology policy. More specifically, I am motivated by questions such as: How can we improve democratic governance in developing country contexts? What policies are effective in closing the gender gap in education and labor market participation? What role can technological innovation play in strengthening democratic representation and accountability? In my two capstone research projects, I investigated the impact of introduction of electronic voting machines in India on public education provision and the impact of air pollution in math test scores of children. In the summer of 2023, I worked as a summer intern at the Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) unit in the Research Group of the World Bank, where I worked under the gender unit and was involved with several RCTs designed to evaluate the effectiveness of different interventions to stop sexual harassment on public transport vehicles in developing countries. Previously in UCSD, I worked as a Graduate Student Researcher at the Center for Gender Equity and Health (GEH) where I worked primarily in the EMERGE project funded by the Gates Foundation, which is one of the largest repositories of measures and resources for survey researchers and practitioners. Under the leadership of Dr. Anita Raj, GEH provided me the opportunity to learn from and contribute to many critical initiatives to measure and stop gender based violence in California and India, and create a repository of resources that can be used by researchers and practitioners world wide to increase the availability of credible data informing us about gender equality and gender based violence world wide.

Tell us about your campus involvement at UC San Diego

While at UCSD, I was elected as the Vice-President of Academic Affairs for the Graduate and Professional Students' Association (GPSA), representing more than 9000 graduate and professional students at UCSD. At GPS, I was part of the Development club and the Security Studies Group. I was also a part of GPS intramural teams participating in Volleyball, Soccer, Basketball and Soft Ball.

I lived on-campus in the graduate housing complex and my favorite activity to do on campus was to study together or hangout with my friends at GPS lounge or Glider port lounge. I was lucky to be living in the beautiful San Diego area and I loved going on long runs across the campus, the marine drive or around Coronado island.

Why UC San Diego?

I chose UCSD for my graduate studies because of the reputation of GPS as a school that trains its students in rigorous quantitative methods and offers a supportive community of scholars. The generous full scholarship I received also allowed me to come here and not worry about finances to attend such an outstanding school as an international student.

Have you received any awards or fellowships?

I received a full scholarship (for the duration of my degree) to attend the School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS). After my first year at GPS, I was awarded the Doming Liu Award which recognizes a first-year student for their achievements, leadership and contributions to the GPS community; and the Best Policy Memo award which recognizes a first-year student who wrote the best policy memo paper for a course. I also received the Dean's fellowship awarded to students who have modeled the principles of community and demonstrated excellence in their leadership, academic achievements, and contribution to the GPS community.

What was your favorite graduate student experience at UC San Diego?

Looking back at my graduate student experience at UC San Diego, I am grateful for having amazing teachers and mentors. However, I am most grateful for meeting all my friends from across the world. We shared our cultures with each other. We made each other better students and leaders. My favorite part of the UCSD journey so far is the time I spent with my friends, either studying, or exploring San Diego.