Emma Zubak

Emma Zubak is a student in Georgetown’s Master of Science in Foreign Service program. She is pursuing a concentration in Science, Technology, and International Affairs, as well as a certificate in Gender, Peace, and Security. Born in Chicago, Emma attended Duke University, where she double-majored in Public Policy and Chinese. In addition to English and Chinese, she also speaks her family’s language of Bosnian.

Her academic, research, and work experiences primarily lie in the field of women’s rights. She interned for the Youth and Gender team at the United Nations Population Fund in Bosnia, where she contributed to discussions about the development of Bosnia’s latest Women, Peace and Security Agenda. Inspired by her attendance at the 68th UN Commission on the Status of Women, Emma wrote her undergraduate honors thesis on attitudes toward UN gender equality frameworks in Bosnia, earning her graduate with distinction status. Now, she hopes to bring a technological lens to her women’s rights work, exploring how AI and other emerging technologies exacerbate abuses against women without proper governance mechanisms in place to combat them.

Outside of her policy work, she is an active member in DC’s storytelling spaces, performing in live storytelling shows hosted by organizations that aim to facilitate human connection. Emma believes in the power of personal narrative to deconstruct barriers among people with vastly differing backgrounds. This perspective drives her approach to public service. She strives to bridge her analytical work with her commitment to storytelling, changing how institutions understand and respond to gender-based challenges.