Georgia on My Mind, DC in My Future

Allie Maloney May 29, 2025

When I was given the opportunity to go visit a university to talk about the Scoville Fellowship and international peace and security issues, the choice was clear: I’d go back to where it began for me. The University of Georgia is situated in the beautiful Athens, Georgia—the classic city—as it’s known by its residents and the 60,000 students that roam its streets.

I don’t think I would be where I am today without the School of Public and International Affairs at UGA and the fantastic faculty that has constantly provided unmatchable mentorship. So, I immediately reached out to my professor, mentor, and friend, Dr. Maryann Gallagher, the Director of UGA’s Richard B. Russell Security Leadership Program (SLP) to ask if I could speak to the SLP. The SLP is a rigorous academic program for undergraduate students who learn how to analyze and create policy related to national and international security through experiential learning. I was a Security Leadership Fellow in my senior year of university and it was the single most influential thing I did during undergrad. Highlights were completing a national security council simulation as the international organization advisor, visiting DC over spring break, and conducting my independent research on women in nuclear security. But the most important thing for me was the connections I made with my peers in my cohort, alumni from the program, and faculty of the Center for International Trade and Security, where the SLP is hosted. Dr. Gallagher would bring back students of the program to come speak to us about their careers and experience in international trade and security, so it was an honor to come back to do the same. 

I was lucky to be joined by another alum of the SLP, Scoville Fellow ’23 Sophia McCartney, who completed her fellowship at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation. We spoke to three different groups of students—SPIA and CITS students who were interested in the Scoville Fellowship, the junior cohort of the SLP and the senior cohort of the SLP. I was delighted to answer questions about the fellowship and how my academic journey, including the SLP, prepared me for the work I do at the Federation of American Scientists as a Scoville Fellow. It was the skills I learned in the SLP writing policy memos and briefs that helped me write two Day 1 Memos for the Federation of American Scientists: Pursuing A Missile Pre-Launch Notification Agreement with China as a Risk Reduction Measure and Introducing Certification of Technical Necessity for Resumption of Nuclear Explosive Testing. 

I also explained to students my journey into the field of nuclear disarmament. I didn’t know anything about nuclear weapons policy until my senior year when Dr. Gallagher taught us about the nuclear triad, deterrence, and the NPT–a year later I found myself working for the most authoritative source on global nuclear weapons arsenals and attending the Third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the UN in New York as a youth delegate. I could see panic in the faces of the students I spoke to about what their future would be, and Dr. Gallagher laughingly reminded me how panicked I was too at that same time last year. The Scoville Fellowship gave me the break I needed to get to DC and be in the type of career I always dreamed of but didn’t really know the specifics of what it was in practice. University students not in DC must rely on programs like the SLP to give them a window into what DC career opportunities may look like and fellowships like Scoville to get them there. 

On my last day in Athens, I had the opportunity to guest lecture to Dr. Naomi Egel’s Arms Control class on my research of the environmental health impacts of the nuclear weapons industry that I conducted throughout my fellowship. It was so rewarding to see students engaged by my research and ask great questions related to radiation fallout, downwinder justice, and disarmament. I was glad to share my passion for this issue and promote other students to also be interested in this topic.

Allie Maloney is a Fall 2024 Scoville Fellow for the Nuclear Information Project at Federation of American Scientists