ANDREW RUAN

Andy is an undergraduate senior at Vanderbilt University studying economics, sociology, and business. Andy discovered his passion for global development as a researcher in the Vanderbilt Research on Conflict, Change, and Action (ROCCA) Lab where he has spearheaded projects on the evolution of international organizations, collective action, and global conflict resolution. He was a member of the inaugural Embodying Peace fellowship program in 2020 where he worked in development roles for non-profit peacebuilding entities in Israel-Palestine. He is also a contributing writer for Fieldnotes, a digital publication on peacebuilding. In 2019-2020, Andy served as the Vice President of the Vanderbilt College of Arts & Sciences Council. In this role, he launched initiatives to advance action on climate and racial justice in addition to organizing student engagement behind events such as Al Gore’s “24 Hours of Reality”.

Andy has also acquired a wealth of expertise in development finance, specifically regarding sustainable infrastructure. He is the author of Closing the Gap: Sustainable Infrastructure to Save the World, a book on the need for core energy, transportation, and water assets to address climate change and other global challenges. Upon graduation, he will join Bank of America’s public finance department to help finance the nation’s state and local infrastructure projects.