Ellie Murphy

Ellie Murphy is a graduate candidate in the Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) program at Georgetown University, where she is pursuing a concentration in Geoeconomics, Business and Finance. Her academic interests center on impact investing and the ways in which the private sector can support international development by creating more sustainable funding schemes for long-term projects. She also plans to examine how developing countries design strategic financing mechanisms to enhance their competitiveness and attract global investors, with a particular focus on blended finance and innovative public-private partnerships.

Before joining the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Ellie earned her BA in International Relations and Sociology from Tufts University. During her time at Tufts, she participated in the Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) program, where she helped organize a symposium on the efficacy of the UN’s Responsibility to Protect. She also independently taught a peer-led course on the ethics of voluntourism, analyzing its implications within broader global power dynamics and debates on development.

After graduating, Ellie spent two years in Rwanda working with the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA), supporting Afghan girls who relocated after the Taliban’s resurgence. In this role, she designed a world history course for English-language learners, contributed to organizational communications, developed social programming, and helped build partnerships between SOLA and local Rwandan schools, including the Maranyundo Initiative. She later completed a Fulbright in Argenteuil, France, serving as an English teaching assistant at a lycée and working with Education USA to support French students applying to U.S. universities.

Ellie speaks French and is learning Spanish during her time at Georgetown.