Isabel Salovaara joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as APARC Predoctoral Fellow for the 2025-2026 academic year. She is a Ph.D. Candidate in Stanford's Department of Anthropology. Her dissertation, “Engendering the State: Aspiration, Government Jobs, and the Coaching Industry in Bihar, India,” analyzes the effects of organized exam preparation systems on urban life, gender and kin relations, and the politics of (un)employment. Through ethnographic engagement with young people preparing for government recruitment examinations in India, Isabel's work investigates the social life of "shadow education" — a burgeoning industry across much of Asia. Her research complicates the common framing of shadow education as a social ill by showing how young women and members of disprivileged caste groups harness India's coaching institutes to pursue forms of security and independence for themselves and their families.

Isabel received an A.B. in History from Harvard University and an M.Phil. in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge.

Yuli Xu joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellow for the 2025-2026 academic year. She recently obtained her Ph.D. in Economics at the University of California, San Diego. Her research focuses on Labor and Health Economics, with particular interests in how female labor force participation and fertility decisions are influenced by labor market institutions and past birth experiences.

In her thesis, "Gendered Impacts of Privatization: A Life Cycle Perspective from China," she demonstrates that the reduction in public sector employment has widened the gender gap in the labor market while narrowing the gender gap in educational attainment. She also finds that this structural shift has delayed marriage among younger generations.

In another line of research, Yuli examines the effects of maternity ward overcrowding. She finds that overcrowding reduces the use of medical procedures during childbirth without negatively impacting maternal or infant health. While it has no direct effect on subsequent fertility, she shows that mothers, especially those with a college degree, are more likely to switch to another hospital for subsequent births after experiencing overcrowding.

During her time at APARC, Yuli will further investigate patient-physician relationships in the Chinese healthcare system, where patients have considerable flexibility in choosing their doctors at each visit. She will explore the persistence of these relationships and examine how patients respond when their regular doctors are temporarily unavailable.

Yuli also holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of International Business and Economics in China.

Jun Akabane joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as visiting scholar beginning spring 2025 through winter 2026. He currently serves as Professor at Chuo University in the Department of Economics. While at APARC, he will be conducting research analyzing business strategies in the era of economic security from the perspective of global value chains, environmental and human rights issues, with a particular focus on companies in the U.S. and Asia.

Sungsup Ra joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as visiting scholar for the 2025 calendar year. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the Korea Development Institute School of Public Policy and Management (KDI School) and also serves as an Advisor to the International Financing Facility for Education (IFFEd), an Advisory Board Member at the International Centre for Industrial Transformation (INCIT), and an Industry Fellow at the NTU Entrepreneurship Academy (NTUpreneur).

Before joining KDI School in April 2024, Sungsup was the Deputy Director General and Deputy Group Chief of the Sectors Group at the Asian Development Bank (ADB). In this role, he led ADB-wide strategies, knowledge innovation, and sovereign operations across multiple sectors including agriculture, education, energy, health, finance, transport, urban development, and water. He oversaw key ADB initiatives such as climate financing, energy transition, addressing the learning crisis, food security, the rollout of the new operating model, and the management of 29 trust funds.

With over 35 years of professional experience, including 23 years at ADB, Sungsup held leadership positions such as Chief Sector Officer for Sustainable Development and Climate Change, Director of the South Asia Human and Social Development Division, and Director of the Pacific Operations Division. He also chaired the Education Sector Group, driving strategic education initiatives across Asia and the Pacific.

Prior to ADB, Sungsup worked in both the public and private sectors, including roles at Samsung and the Korean National Pension. He has also taught at leading universities such as International Christian University in Tokyo, Korea University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He holds a Doctorate in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

While at APARC, he conducted research on the future of skills development in Asia.

Yingqiu Kuang joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as 2024-2025 Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellow on Contemporary Asia beginning January 2025. She is a political scientist specializing in the comparative and international political economy of China and East Asia. Her research interests lie at the intersection of technology, law, and global governance. Her book project, “A Mosaic of Mundane Innovations: Emerging Powers, Multinational Firms, and Global 5G Technology Rules,” examines the emergence of latecomer economies like China and South Korea as key agents in the global technology governance regime. Using a mixed research method and an original, novel dataset, the project aims to explain why East Asian firms appear more effective in 5G rule-making on transnational platforms than traditional technology giants, and how the diverse behavior of these firms are reshaping global institutions.

At APARC, Yingqiu worked on expanding and revising her book manuscript. She also continued to pursue her wider scholarly agenda, which concerns the economic engagements between China, East Asia, and the world. She was particularly interested in how technological unpredictability is changing the landscape of economic governance in the region and the world.

Yingqiu completed her PhD in Political Science at the University of British Columbia. She also holds a master’s degree in political science from UBC. She developed her interest in political science and international relations in East Asia while an undergraduate student at Peking University and Waseda University in China and Japan. As a policy and technology specialist, she has also worked with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, the National Energy Board of Canada and others on trade, investment, and clean energy issues.

Matthew Dolbow joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as visiting scholar from 2024 to 2026 from the U.S. Department of State.  Before coming to APARC, Mr. Dolbow strengthened U.S. military deterrence capabilities in Asia as the U.S. Consul General in Okinawa, Japan.  As Chief of Staff in the U.S. National Security Council’s international economics office during the first Trump administration, Mr. Dolbow helped compile the 2017 U.S. National Security Strategy, which declared for the first time that "economic security is national security," and thus helped to establish a new bipartisan U.S. consensus on innovative trade, investment screening, and energy policies that increased U.S. competitiveness and secured the U.S. defense industrial base. As head of economic strategy at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing from 2013 to 2016, Mr. Dolbow created a Department of State-wide training program that taught colleagues to track and assess China's Belt and Road Initiative projects.  While at APARC, he will be conducting research on competition with China related to technology, innovation, human capital, and national security.

You Jung Lee joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as visiting scholar for the 2024-2025 academic year. She is a journalist for the Korea Economic Daily, having spent over 10 years covering areas including international affairs and, most recently, construction and the real estate market. While at APARC, she conducted research examining Korea's housing and real estate market, its policies and financial structure, and comparing Korea's system to that of the U.S.