Meet The Team
Senior Advisor
Tobyn Smith is a senior majoring in international affairs, and he is also a student in UGA's MIP program. He is also involved with the Georgia Political Review. Tobyn has an interest in energy security.
Director of Strategy and Administration
Nila Karunakaran is a third-year student double majoring in MIS and international affairs on the pre-law track. Outside of LJS, she serves as the Director of Terry Inclusive Excellence Ambassadors (TIEA) in the Terry College of Business, an At-Large Health and Humanities Senator in student government, and a student researcher at the Carl Vinson Institute, where she focuses on data analytics and visualizations for state and local governments. She is primarily interested in digital governance, global energy security, and international human rights policy.
Editor-in-Chief of the General Editorial
Bridget Peach is a senior majoring in international affairs and Russian with a minor in Spanish. Outside of LJS, she is involved with the Russian Flagship Program, CITS Security Leadership Program, the Morehead Honors College, and Gamma Phi Beta sorority. Bridget is interested in national security and international trade policy.
Director of the Editorial
Meagan McColloch is a senior triple majoring in political science, religion, and women's studies, with a certificate in Applied Politics. She is also involved with Religion Department Ambassadors, Institute for Women's Studies Ambassadors, the Women's Studies Student Organization, and the PALS Mentorship Program at the Honors College. Meagan is also a teaching assistant for the Honors College, a co-host for her radio talk show at WUOG 90.5, and an undergraduate researcher at the Department of Religion. She is primarily interested in religious conflict, international human rights policy, and political extremism.
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Director of Digital Media
Uma Miskinyar is a sophomore majoring in international affairs and Arabic, with minors in Geographic Information Science and German, and a certificate in Cybersecurity. Outside of LJS, she enjoys visiting coffee shops, reading books on foreign affairs, and learning languages. Her interests include national security, counterterrorism, and the application of technology in combating threats.
Meera Srinivasan - Staff Writer & Editor
Meera Srinivasan is a senior from Columbus, Georgia, pursuing degrees in political science and international affairs as well as certificates in Applied Politics and Data Analytics. On campus, Meera serves as an Ambassador for the School of Public and International Affairs, writes for Georgia Political Review, and sings with the UGA Hodgson Singers, UGA’s premier choral ensemble. Her interests include linguistic politics, environmental politics, and competing nationalisms.
Athena Leskovics - Staff Writer
Athena Leskovics is a junior and double majoring in political science and international affairs with a minor in international human rights and security. Outside of LJS, she is a SPIA ambassador, a tutor, a member of Alpha Phi, and a member of the Order of Omega. She attended the SPIA Firenze summer Maymester this year and will be a part of the Washington Semester Program this upcoming spring. She is interested in human rights and advocacy for human trafficking victims. This fall, she will be working with IJM to lobby in Washington, D.C.
Grey Cohen - Weekly Digest Editor & Staff Writer
Grey Cohen is a senior majoring in international affairs and Arabic. Along with three years of writing and editing for LJS, Grey is the President of UGA's Alexander Hamilton Society chapter, a foreign policy club that hosts monthly speaker events with national security experts. She has worked in the non-profit sector, government, and at think tanks. Grey is dedicated to centering security policy discussions around the people they impact, and has developed an expertise in South Asian nonproliferation work.
Claire Scafidi - Staff Writer & Editor
Claire Scafidi is an international affairs, Spanish, and Latin American and Caribbean Studies Major and studio art minor. As a junior, she is serving as a Carl Vinson Research Fellow, SPIA Ambassador, and joining the Security Leadership Program. Claire is interested in human rights and human security, particularly in Latin America.
Cristian Paez - Staff Writer
Cristian is a second-year student majoring in international affairs, political science, and Russian, with a minor in urban planning. Outside of LJS, he also writes for the Georgia Political Review and is a member of UGA’s Model United Nations travel team and the Demosthenian Literary Society. His general interests lie in foreign policy, conflict resolution, and economic revitalization.
Wells Benjamin - Staff Writer
Wells Benjamin is a 4th year international affairs major. He is involved in the Alexander Hamilton society. His interests involve security policy, environmental security, global conflict, and transnational crime.
Mallory Houlihan - Staff Writer
Mallory is a fourth-year political science and international affairs double major with a minor in Spanish. Her interests are in foreign policy and national security, with a specific focus on the Indo-Pacific region. Outside of LJS, she serves as the President of Pi Sigma Alpha, co-founder of Energy@UGA, and a member of Sigma Kappa.
Jordan Smith - Staff Writer
Jordan Smith is a senior at UGA majoring in international affairs and political science. Outside of LJS, she is a member of the John Quincy Adams Society and works with the Athens Rotaract on the "Protecting the Environment Committee." She hopes to attend graduate school for public policy and is interested in foreign, environmental, social, and economic policy.
Ellie Trumpfheller - Staff Writer
Ellie is a senior pursuing degrees in international affairs and political science with a minor in history. She spent the spring semester participating in the UGA at Oxford study abroad program, where she joined Hertford College's Centre for Diplomacy as a research assistant on cognitive warfare policy. Before studying abroad, she participated in the Security Leadership Program at CITS, where she conducted independent empirical research on how great power security assurances affect regional conflict. Through CURO, she published a research paper on the evolution of the Abraham Accords with Dr. Eli Sperling. Her experience includes internships with the Department of Defense, the House of Representatives, and the Athens Board of Elections. Her academic and professional interests center around the changing character of war, Middle Eastern security, and cognitive warfare.
Bianca Orfila-Molinet - Staff Writer & Editor
Bianca is majoring in political science and international affairs, with a minor in Human Rights. She'll be a sophomore for the 2025-2026 school year and is involved in the UGA community through organizations such as Planned Parenthood Generation Action and the Young Democrats of UGA. She has interests in human security and rights, as well as an interest in looking at international issues through a feminist lens.
Makayla Bangoura- Staff Writer
Makayla Bangoura is a fourth-year student from Acworth, Georgia. She is an international affairs major with two minors in business and Law, Jurisprudence, and the State. Outside of LJS, Makayla is a travel team member of the UGA Model United Nations Team. She is interested in human rights, specifically women's rights in the international system, as well as the rights of children. She is also interested in foreign policy and crisis intervention.
Editor-in-Chief of the Weekly Digest
Mary Wahn is in her fourth year at UGA studying International Affairs and Public Relations. Alongside her position with the Loch Johnson Society's Weekly Digest, Mary is involved with the University Judiciary and studies security issues as a Security Leadership Fellow with the Benson-Bertsch Center for International Trade and Security. Mary's current foreign policy interests lie in West African security issues, non-proliferation, and global/national information systems.
Ana Valencia - Senior Advisor & CITS Liaison
Ana Valencia is a senior studying Political Science and International Affairs with a minor in Human Rights and International Security. On campus, she is part of the competition team of UGA’s nationally ranked Model United Nations Team, and a part of the social committee for Young Democrats of UGA & ACC. She is also an intern for the 2030 Project working on political campaign research and content creation. Ana is a correspondent for the Human Rights column of the Georgia Political Review, where her policy interests include human rights and American foreign policy!
Grey Cohen - Weekly Digest Writer
Grey is interested in human security and international development, specifically MENA affairs. Grey is on the executive board of Common Ground and Alexander Hamilton Society. Grey will be starting the Security Leadership Program at the UGA Center for International Trade & Security in the spring.
Iman Khan - Graphic Designer
Iman is involved in Stillpoint Literary Magazine, Literature Club, and the Pakistani Student Association. In her free time she enjoys reading, playing tennis, and watching movies, and she’s primarily interested in human rights, security, and gender.
Makayla Bangoura - Staff Writer
Makayla is a second-year International Affairs major at UGA. Her areas of policy interest are Human Rights, UN and Nato Crisis intervention, and relations between EU states. Makayla is also a member of the UGA Model UN team!