Shaylyn Becton (she/her) is from St. Louis and is a graduate student at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs in Urban and Regional Planning, with a concentration in Design and Development. She is interested in improving urban design, primarily in vulnerable communities both domestically and internationally. She earned a bachelor’s degree in International Relations with a minor in Biomedical Ethics. She has worked as a legal assistant in real estate, served as a program coordinator in hospitality services, interned at Arch City Defenders in litigation in St. Louis, and interned as a community coordinator and English tutor in Tokyo, Japan. She has also researched the relationship between homelessness and policing in San Diego with the Urgent Challenges Collective at the University of San Diego.

Her passions are guided by serving vulnerable communities, and she hopes to further actionable research in urban development and design, land use, and environmental domestic and international policy to serve these communities. She is excited to be a member of the Asia Foreign Policy team and to conduct research on urban development in Southeast Asia to further serve under-heard voices in foreign policy.

In her free time, she enjoys browsing different jazz and hip-hop discographies and eating McDonald’s.