Anna Lenaker, a 2019 graduate of Brown University who earned a Master of Public Affairs at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs in 2020, has been named a 2024-2025 Luce Scholar. The prestigious and highly competitive program is an initiative of the Henry Luce Foundation that annually selects 18 Luce Scholars to spend one year living and working in an Asian country of their choosing.
Nearly 400 people applied to the program, and after surviving the rigorous, multi-tiered application and interview processes, Lenaker was among those selected. With so much of her education focused on North America and Europe, Lenaker called the opportunity to study and work in Asia "thrilling." She added, "I believe it's vital to take time to learn from and immerse myself in other histories and cultures."
The narrative-driven nature of the Luce Scholars application process resonated with Lenaker, who already had experience telling her story through her 2021 memoir, "Able to Be Otherwise."
While attending Brown as a Sidney E. Frank Scholar, Lenaker witnessed from afar the devastation caused by the Camp Fire in northern California in 2018. Although the wildfire didn't destroy her family's home, Lenaker had many friends who lost their homes. "I grieved the loss of place and life. It was devastating to witness so much destruction in a place I love and to see it impact so many people, many of whom were low-income or elderly," said Lenaker. Many of her friends and their families are only now financially and emotionally rebuilding their lives. Some have been disrupted by recent floods in Santa Barbara County, highlighting the plural and compounding environmental impacts that individuals can experience in a time of environmental change.
Witnessing the fire's physical, financial and emotional devastation of her community inspired Lenaker to apply to Watson's MPA program. "The MPA gave me the tools to begin imagining a career dedicated to addressing climate change and other environmental issues," she said, including a thorough grounding in economics, statistics and policy analysis.
Lenaker will receive her Master of Environmental Management degree from the Yale School for the Environment, specializing in climate change science and solutions. At Yale, she has been a teaching fellow, a co-chair for the Graduate School Conference in Religion and Ecology, and a co-leader for the Energy Student Interest Group.
Lenaker is deliberating whether Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, or Vietnam will be her destination next year. Before the Luce Scholars travel to their chosen country, they will gather in Singapore for orientation. After that, two months of dedicated language learning begins. Lenaker hopes to spend her year working on domestic climate change mitigation and adaptation policy, perhaps incorporating her interest in water management.
The Henry Luce Foundation partners with the Asia Foundation, which helps Luce Scholars identify potential professional placements in the countries of interest. "The Luce Scholars become a cohort and are encouraged to visit one another in our respective countries," said Lenaker. "As with Watson's MPA program, this intense experience is made more comfortable by being part of a wonderful community of people sharing similar experiences."
Successful Luce Scholars are prized for their leadership skills. During the interview process, Lenaker was asked to describe a time when she demonstrated unconventional leadership. "Writing my memoir and sharing it with [the Brown] community has been a tool for starting valuable conversations," said Lenaker, who deeply appreciates that her memoir has been incorporated into the Meiklejohn Peer Advisors course at Brown.
During their time at Watson, Lenaker and fellow 2020 MPA graduate Jackie Agustin collaborated to host focus groups with first-generation, low-income students about the barriers to accessing the LINK and UTRA programs that support internship and research opportunities. "We recommended a series of reforms, many of which were incorporated into SPRINT. These changes have increased applications from and acceptances of first-generation, low-income students."
For Lenaker, who remains grateful for the full scholarship that enabled her to attend Brown as an undergraduate, leadership also means giving back. She has been a teaching and research assistant for Professor Nick Ziegler and is currently a member of the Board of Governors for the Brown Alumni Association.