Athens, Ga. – Former captain of the University of Georgia varsity cross country team and recent international business graduate Christine Shepherd is going to Washington, D.C., to lend UGA’s Center for International Trade and Security (CITS) a hand in its project for the U.S. State Department evaluating national export control systems in more than 30 countries.
Shepherd will be in Washington during fall semester as part of the CITS Washington internship program. Responsible for preparing reports for distribution to CITS researchers in Washington and Athens, Shepherd will be sent to meetings and hearings that have bearing on the State Department project.
The CITS Washington internship program, which is designed to prepare students for careers in nonproliferation and international service, gives one outstanding UGA student each spring and fall semester the opportunity to intern in the Washington office. CITS works with a range of students preparing them for careers in homeland and international security.
Shepherd will be working out of CITS’ new Washington office located at 1090 Vermont Avenue, N.W. The office houses five full-time staff members and one UGA intern. The center’s Washington office maintains close ties with Congress and federal agencies, as well as other nongovernmental and academic organizations that contribute to the center’s research and educational endeavors.
CITS is an organization associated with UGA’s School of Public and International Affairs. The center is devoted to research, teaching and outreach on issues related to international trade and security. CITS is highly regarded for its research on nonproliferation export controls – the laws, regulations and enforcement arrangements that keep the components of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists and countries of concern. CITS’ activities bolster export controls in countries where these components are manufactured, transshipped and imported. Having published evaluations of export controls in more than 40 countries and hosted numerous seminars and conferences in the United States and abroad, the center’s system for evaluating export controls is the acknowledged standard in the field.
CITS is a nonpartisan organization. The center’s training and outreach programs are supported almost entirely by external funding, with more than 90 percent of its total operating budget deriving from grants awarded by private foundations and the U.S. government.
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