Quaid Sutherland

Quaid Sutherland grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina, and attended Duke University, graduating in 2025 with a major in Political Science and minors in Economics and Cultural Anthropology.

At Duke, he worked as a research assistant in the political science department, supporting a faculty research team in quantifying national power utilizing economic, military, diplomatic, and cultural factors. After a course on terrorism and game theory, he and five teammates won the national Invent2Prevent competition, securing a $25,000 DHS grant to launch a startup geared towards supporting deradicalization nonprofits.

His passion for international affairs repeatedly pulled him toward language study and fieldwork abroad. Interning for two months in a Spanish-immersive position at Penguin Group in Asunción, Paraguay, he attended economic development conferences and toured the Itaipu and Yacyretá hydroelectric dams to draft an action plan for converting the nation’s renewable energy into human capital. While continuing to study Spanish and political science during a semester at the University of Granada, Spain, he took his first Mandarin course and began redirecting his focus towards East Asian studies. He was awarded the Boren Scholarship and the Huayu BEST Scholarship, and spent seven months in Taiwan studying Mandarin, foreign policy, and sustainable development at National Tsing Hua University and National Taiwan Normal University.

After graduating, Quaid received the John Hope Franklin Student Documentary Award grant and returned to Taiwan to film and direct an independent documentary, traveling the island to interview foreigners and locals about shifting Taiwanese identity and the challenges of cultural integration. Before attending law school, he returned home to North Carolina, where he worked at the New Hanover County Community Justice Center, a local youth and family violence services center.

At Georgetown, he plans to build a legal career at the intersection of sustainable development, human rights, and international relations. He has advanced Spanish proficiency and speaks intermediate Mandarin. In his free time, Quaid enjoys photography, cooking, working out, and caring for his ever-expanding plant collection.