Staff

Sean Dolan is the Assistant Programs Director for the Asian Studies Suite at the Elliott School. In his role, he oversees budgeting, grants management, and financial and administrative matters for the GW Institute for Korean Studies (GWIKS), the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, the GW East Asia National Resource Center (NRC) and for various Asian Studies programs and faculty members. Sean graduated from the University of Georgia with a B.A. in International Affairs and French. After college, he first moved to Korea as an English teacher and then completed an M.A. in International Relations at Sogang University in Seoul. After graduate school, he spent several years working for an international education company in Texas, where he managed admissions for study abroad programs in Korea and several other countries. He later returned to Seoul to direct on-site operations for study abroad programs in Korea. Prior to moving into his current role, Sean previously served as the Program Manager for GWIKS.

Havin Baik is the Program Coordinator for the George Washington University Institute for Korean Studies (GWIKS) at the Elliott School (ESIA). She earned her B.A. in International Affairs from GW, with concentrations in International Politics and Global Public Health, and is currently pursuing an M.S. in International Business at the GW School of Business. During her undergraduate career, Havin was deeply engaged with both ESIA and GWIKS as a researcher in the Dean’s Scholars Program, a published essayist in the GWIKS Media Essay Competition, and an active participant in Institute programming. Her research on South Korean university students’ views on Korean division and reunification was supported by ESIA Research Awards and showcased at the Elliott School Student Research Showcase. Havin brings extensive experience in event coordination, marketing, and administrative operations from her four years at GW’s Office of Student Life, where she led university-wide events and managed data-driven digital outreach campaigns. She also interned at the Hudson Institute, where she supported communications, archival projects, and policy research under Secretary Elaine Chao. Havin is passionate about supporting cross-cultural understanding and excited to contribute to GWIKS’s mission through impactful programming, student engagement, and academic collaboration.

Hae Kyung “Haley” Ahn is Program Manager (Korean Policy) for the Fiscal Policy Forum. In collaboration with Program Manager (Economic Policy), Hae Kyung designs and plans education programs, workshops, and public conferences. Hae Kyung also serves as Senior Advisor for Outreach and the representative of The Korea Society in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining The Korea Society, Hae Kyung worked as Senior Advisor at Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI) and Head of the Protocol Office at the U.S. Embassy, Seoul. She also served as advisor and lecturer at the International Convention Management Center at Ewha Womans University and adjunct professor at Soongeui Women’s College in Seoul, Korea. Haley has received various awards from the U.S. government including Meritorious Honor Award and Foreign Service National (FSN) of the Year Award. She has also received a Merit Award from the Republic of Korea Minister of National Defense. Haley was an undergraduate at Ewha Womans University. She holds a Master’s degree in International Studies from Yonsei University and Ph.D. in Political Science from Ewha Womans University.

Kyle Renner manages the Fiscal Policy Forum at the GW Institute for Korean Studies (GWIKS) at the Elliott School of International Affairs. In his role as Program Manager for Fiscal Policy he works in collaboration with his esteemed colleague Hae Kyung Ann, the Program Manager for Korean Policy, to design and plan education programs, workshops, and public conferences on issues of deep concern to the future of the Republic of Korea and the United States of America. These issues include but are not limited to issues of fiscal sustainability, the impacts of aging societies, the role of industrial policy and innovation policy in economic growth, and the interaction between government bodies in fiscal policymaking. 

Renner also helps direct the Institute for International Economic Policy (IIEP) at GW, which provides a prominent platform for high-quality, multi-disciplinary, and non-partisan research, policy engagement, and outreach in international economic and development policy. A member of the Institute’s leadership team, Renner helps guide all aspects of IIEP’s work, including staff, research production, internal and external partnerships, events, public affairs and communications, development, and financial resources. Renner helps direct strategic planning efforts for the Institute and leads the development and implementation of a wide range of new and ongoing organizational initiatives. He has managed sponsored research projects funded by USAID, the Asian Development Bank, DFID, the U.S. Army Research Office, the International Growth Centre, and the Gates, Hewlett, Ford, and MacArthur foundations among others. He is particularly interested in organizational development, human capacity formation, and the use of interdisciplinary approaches to develop innovative solutions to entrenched problems.

Renner is a graduate of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, holding a MA with concentrations in conflict & conflict resolution and the Middle East, and a BA with concentrations in international politics and the Middle East. While an undergrad at GW he interned with the U.S. Peace Corps in Washington, D.C. and the Arab Academy for Banking and Financial Services in Amman, Jordan, and was a member of the varsity men’s soccer team. Prior to GW he studied international business for two years at Saint Louis University’s Madrid Campus, during which he interned with the U.S. Commercial Service at the U.S. Embassy – Madrid. Prior to Madrid he was awarded a Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) scholarship by ASSE to study abroad for a year in Dorsten, Germany. Renner was born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, speaks German and Spanish, and enjoys playing soccer, singing, and traveling.

Daeeun Bae is a sixth-year Ph.D. student in Economics at The George Washington University. Before entering the Ph.D. program, he earned an M.A. in Economics from Seoul National University and a B.A. in Economics from Kyung Hee University. His research interests lie in macroeconomics, with a particular focus on economic growth. Specifically, his research investigates how policies affect technology adoption or innovation and thereby contributes to economic growth. Specifically, his work examines how policies influence technology adoption and innovation, and how these processes shape long-run productivity dynamics. His job market paper studies the interaction between financial development and productivity growth in investment goods production, highlighting the role of financial markets in facilitating the diffusion of productivity-enhancing technologies across industries and countries.

InJung Cho is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Education at the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, The George Washington University. She is a co-chair of New Scholars Committee (NSC) and the Youth Development and Education Special Interest Group (YDESIG) at the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES). She has previously developed digital literacy and arts education programs for North Korean refugee students at People for Successful COrean Reunification in South Korea. She also served as a global citizenship educator with the Korea International Development Cooperation Center’s World Friends Korea Volunteer program, interned at UNESCO Bangkok, and worked as an outreach coordinator for the FreshEd podcast. InJung holds a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies at Waseda University in Japan. Her research focuses on children’s identity development, non-formal education, and spatial-relational dynamics in everyday learning experiences within urban slum contexts in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Dr. Lisa Lackney is the Program Associate for the East Asia National Resource Center. She graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2020 specializing in Japanese cultural history; her primary research is on the emotional experience of modernity in Japan during the 1920s-1930s. She has written and presented on a variety of topics including transhumanism in anime, Boy’s Love manga, and samurai films.

Robert Kincaid is the Program Coordinator for the East Asia National Resource Center.  He graduated from American University in 2021 majoring in International Relations with a regional focus of East Asia and the Pacific and specializes in cross-strait relations and the U.S-China relationship. His research interests also include U.S- Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) relations. He has previoiusly worked in international exchange programming and has experience assisting with the coordination and execution of the State Department’s Young Southeast Asian Leaders Association (YSEALI)..