Lara Defterios (MAES’26) has thrown herself wholeheartedly into community involvement during her time at Georgetown, fostering connections both on and off campus. As she prepares to graduate this spring, Defterios reflects on her journey through the MA in European Studies (MAES) program, highlighting the mentor relationships she’s developed, the unique role of the MAES community and the influence of her cultural heritage and international upbringing.
Defterios’s connection to Georgetown and Washington, DC, also spans generations. Recalling that her father spent eight years in the city following his own college graduation, she says, “He used to joke that once I arrived, I would never want to leave.”
Coming to DC with a global perspective
Deeply rooted in her Italian and Greek heritage and a London upbringing, Defterios’s professional endeavors have always been shaped by an international lens.
“As the proud daughter of two journalists, I had always wanted to work in international affairs,” she explains. “Georgetown was an opportunity not only to witness Washington’s role on the international stage, but to explore the American aspect of my identity in the capital alongside peers who also bridged Europe and the States.”
Beyond her European ties, Defterios spent seven formative years in Abu Dhabi. Growing up in “a Gulf state defining itself on the global stage post-Arab Spring” helped further her interest in international affairs: “The experience it offered was that of a living case study for the centrality of energy in geopolitics.”
It was during an undergraduate internship at the World Energy Council—the world’s oldest global independent energy body—that she gained her first professional exposure to the field. Building on that momentum, she completed a four-month internship the following summer with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of European and Eurasian Affairs.
“Facilitating Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s international engagements, both public and private, felt surreal, particularly as a woman in energy,” Defterios says.
In fact, it was this experience, including the advice of her internship mentor, Pete Giannino (MAGES’18), that cemented her drive to return to the U.S. for graduate studies.
She continues: “I wouldn’t be at Georgetown if it weren’t for the mentorship of Pete Giannino, who informed my decision to select the MAES program of study in the first place.”
Diving deep into energy security
Giannino would be the first of many influential figures in Defterios’s academic and professional journey. At SFS, she credits Professor Abraham Newman’s International Relations in Europe course as the most formative in her time in the program.
“Professor Newman brought a rigorous and refreshingly pragmatic lens to questions of European competitiveness and international trade. His framing of the interplay between markets and security has deeply informed my perspectives and work in the energy sector today,” she says.
This interest in energy security and transatlantic affairs has led to her graduate thesis on the role of liquefied natural gas in the Eastern Mediterranean. This topic, she says, exemplifies the specialized focus she has built during her time at SFS.
Building community on campus and beyond
In addition to her academic path, Defterios has fostered connections both on campus and in the wider Washington, DC, area, particularly within the European policy community. Defterios served as the executive chair of the BMW Center for German and European Studies’ flagship conference, the Transatlantic Policy Symposium. She also serves as the co-president of the SFS Energy Club and director of external outreach of the McCourt School of Public Policy’s student-led European Policy Organization.
Reflecting on her engagements, Defterios explains that, to her, community is what makes the Georgetown MAES program special: “Before enrolling, I had never encountered a graduate program in which alumni remained so consistently and intentionally engaged with current cohorts—not only as mentors, but as friends.”
Defterios has also made her mark off campus, taking on an internship at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center. This opportunity led her to her current full-time role as a junior policy and advocacy specialist at Eni, a global energy technology company operating across the full spectrum of the energy sector, from hydrocarbons to renewables. As a policy analyst, Defterios ties the threads of her academics and professional experiences together.
“My internship at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center exposed me to the strategic dimensions of energy policy, and in my current full-time role at Eni, I see daily how markets, security considerations and political relationships converge,” she says.
Taking SFS to the future
“What I will miss most from SFS is the immediacy of all it has to offer, from my peers to mentors and professors. Even as I remain in Washington after graduation, the everyday access to such brilliant, driven people has been something really special,” Defterios reflects.
Beyond the personal connections, her time in the program provided a clarifying lens through which to view the global landscape.
“My cultural heritage, background and experience at SFS have truly solidified my conviction that energy drives geopolitics, and the transatlantic alliance in particular, more than ever before,” she says.
This realization has become the compass for her next chapter: “Looking forward, I hope to contribute meaningfully to that effort—whether in public service as a diplomat, or in the private sector as I am now. In the meantime, I aim not only to participate in these conversations, but to serve as a voice within them wherever I possibly can.”
