Lucien O'Brien
M.S. in Foreign Service Student
Lucien O’Brien is currently enrolled in Georgetown’s Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) program with a focus on Asian and Russian Studies.
In 2022, Lucien received United Nations accreditation and a research grant in order to travel to Geneva and observe the Universal Periodic Review. Using first-hand observations and testimony from civil society members, he wrote his senior honors thesis, entitled “Peer Reviewing the World: Increasing Civil Society Participation in the United Nations Universal Periodic Review.”
After graduating cum laude with a B.A. in international affairs from Macalester College in 2022, Lucien moved to Washington D.C. to work as a Program Assistant at The Brookings Institution. In this role, he supervised courses on international affairs and U.S. foreign policy taught by Brookings Fellows, members of Congress, and other notable public figures.
Following his tenure at Brookings, Lucien joined the Forum for Cultural Engagement, where he designed and facilitated cultural diplomacy programming covering topics such as media literacy, music, visual art, poetry, and film. In September 2024, he participated in a State Department regional conference on media literacy and was a featured speaker on best practices in designing media literacy programs. After being promoted to Senior Project Manager in October 2024, he also drafted key grant proposals for the organization.