People

Gregory F. Treverton is a Professor of the Practice of International Relations and Spatial Sciences at the University of Southern California and a senior adviser with the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Previously, he directed the RAND Corporation’s Center for Global Risk and Security, its Intelligence Policy Center, and its International Security and Defense Policy Center. He served as associate dean of the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Treverton has served in government for the first Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and has taught at Harvard and Columbia universities. He stepped down as chairman of the National Intelligence Council in January 2017. He holds an AB summa cum laude from Princeton University and a Master’s in Public Policy and a PhD in economics and politics from Harvard.

Matt Stevens is the Associate Director of the Center for International Studies. In this role, he manages the center’s activities in support of the director’s strategic vision. Prior to joining CIS, he served as the senior managing editor at the USC Rossier School of Education, where he edited publications and served as the dean’s speechwriter. He has also worked as an editor for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; as production editor at Stanford University Press; and as managing editor at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, where he collaborated closely with the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute and the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West. Matt earned a master’s degree in African history from UCLA and is currently a doctoral student in the educational leadership program at USC Rossier.

Linda Kim is the Senior Program Specialist of the Center for International Studies. Linda spearheads events and assists with funding support, communication endeavors, and business transactions. She helps to oversee our program for onboarding and assigning undergraduate research assistants to CIS-funded projects with faculty and PhD students. This program—informally called the CIS Institute—has grown to more than 50 undergrads per year, and Linda brings her expertise working in academic communities to enhance the center’s culture of research support. She has worked with faculty, PhD students and undergraduates at UC Irvine, and most recently at the USC Korean Studies Institute. She studied English as an undergraduate at UC Irvine. Linda is also a founding investor of a local social-enterprise that operates as a market, cafe and community space in South LA.

Chandra Tierney is the Communication and Events Manager of the Center for International Studies. She handles communications, budgets, and logistical arrangements for programs hosted by CIS including the Working Paper Series, Graduate Student Professionalization Series, Manuscript Review workshops, and all other CIS conferences and events. Chandra’s interest in and knowledge of international studies began with an academic year abroad at Beijing Foreign Studies University and Macquarie University, where she took courses in Chinese Studies and Contemporary Australian Art. She has backpacked throughout Asia and Oceania and enjoys collecting masks from her travels. Prior to joining CIS, she worked as a negotiator in advertising, a project manager in New York City, and most recently as an associate in the study abroad department here at USC. Chandra received her MA in Communication Management from the University of Southern California in 2019.