The Model United Nations Institute is organized and led by a team of Model UN professionals with experience running programs in over twenty countries. Click on our full-time staff’s names and titles below to learn more about them!
Ryan Villanueva
Co-Founder & Chief Education Officer
Kevin Felix Chan
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Laurabeth Goldsmith
Executive Director of Partnerships
Conna Walsh
Senior Marketing Manager
MUN Institute Staff
We maintain a 1-to-12 staff-to-student ratio at each MUN Institute program. Our programs are staffed by the best and most inspiring leaders on the college MUN circuit – the Program Managers, the MUN Mentors, and the Residential Counselors are all there to guarantee an amazing experience for every student. All staff have undergone background checks, completed a course about the protection of minors, and completed the MUN Institute Staff training.
The Program Manager serves as the director for each MUN Institute program, and they have been trained to ensure that the MUN Institute is a safe, fun, and educational environment for every student.
The MUN Mentors serve as the Model UN instructors and trainers throughout the week, and will work closely with each of their students to help them improve through practice, feedback, and encouragement. The MUN Mentors are all successful leaders from their college MUN programs.
The Residential Counselors will manage residential supervision, evening programming, weekend programming, and general safety throughout the program. Our counselors are university students with significant experience in counseling and residential supervision.
Meet the Summer 2019 MUN Institute Staff – Check back soon to meet the Summer 2020 Staff!
Program Manager
Mustafa Hassoun
Mustafa Hassoun is an alumnus of Emory University where he studied Political Science, with a concentration in International Politics, and Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies, on the Middle East Track. He will be attending law school in the fall. Mustafa was the president of the Emory International Relations Association—Emory Model United Nations’ parent organization. He works with the Baraka English School, a division of the Orphan Charity Foundation in Baghdad, Iraq. He speaks three languages, Arabic, English, and Spanish, and is working on a fourth, Persian. In addition to his interest in international relations and politics he is an avid sports fan, a New York Mets and Alabama football fan to name a couple, and loves traveling, his favorite places he has visited are Spain and Lebanon. He worked as a Diplomacy Fellow for Best Delegate last summer and he can’t wait for the opportunities as Program Manager this year.
MUN Mentors
Piper Womelsdorf
Piper Womelsdorf is a student entering her third year at The Ohio State University studying International Relations & Diplomacy and Geography of Urban, Regional & Global Development, with a minor in Arabic. She has been doing Model United Nations since her senior year of high school, and now serves as the Head Delegate of Ohio State’s MUN team. She enjoys traveling with her MUN teammates and friends, and leads the OSU team to conferences across the United States and Canada.
Jillian Bendlak
Jillian Bendlak attends the George Washington University where she is double majoring in International Affairs and Political Science with a concentration in Conflict Resolution. Once a delegate in high school and formerly the Vice President of her high school Model UN club, she now enjoys teaching MUN to students. She currently serves as the Director of the GWU Program on International Education, where she teaches Model UN and fosters debate skills to high school and middle school students in the DC area. Jillian also serves as the Director of the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime committee at the National High School Model UN conference, which takes place in New York City. Although she is no longer a Model UN delegate or on a MUN team, she is passionate about sharing her prior experiences with students and helping them become the best delegates they can be.
Dalton Liggett
Dalton Liggett is a first-year student at McGill University who is currently pursuing a joint-honours degree in Political Science and History. Having been involved with Model United Nations since 2015, Dalton absolutely lives and breathes MUN! As a committed member of the McGill University Model United Delegation Team, Dalton was able to receive awards at both NCSC and UPMUNC this past year, as well as a Best Delegate gavel at NAMUN 2019 in Toronto. He is also a former Secretary-General of the Model United Nations Conference hosted by Montreal-area CEGEP John Abbott College. His ultimate hope is to make use of his position as a diplomacy fellow to engage his passion for educating by sharing his experiences with future generations of aspiring delegates. He looks forward to meeting you all this summer!
Saran Uthayakumar
Saran Uthayakumar is a rising sophomore at UC Berkeley. He is majoring in History and planning to write a thesis on atrocity crime and genocide. He has been in MUN for seven years and was enrolled in the MUNI Diplomat program in 2013 and in the Ambassador program in 2016. He was the Best Delegate of his committee while competing at Berkeley MUN 66, and has won a multitude of awards at local conferences in Orange County and LA. He is a chair and member of the BMUN secretariat, which runs Berkeley’s annual collegiate conference for high school students and conducts outreach and education to local MUN programs. Saran is an Irvine native and has worked with charities helping the internally displaced in Sri Lanka and advocates for students rights and mental health as a grievance case worker in the UC student government. He enjoys his free time walking his two dogs, Nila and Lola, and driving his friends around to sing carpool karaoke (Childish Gambino in particular).
Jack Korologos
Jack is a rising Junior at Georgetown University majoring in Economics. Born and raised in New York City, Jack loves a fast-paced environment. So far, Jack has travelled to 8 conferences as a delegate and has staffed Georgetown’s conferences, NCSC and NAIMUN, a total of 4 times by the end of his Sophomore year. Jack also staffed Best Delegate’s Inaugural conference, BDMUNC, this spring. He is predominantly a crisis delegate and staffer, but his first time traveling was in a GA his senior year of high school. Jack is on the Conferences Staff for Georgetown which helps organize the conferences they attend. Outside of MUN, Jack is a member of Georgetown Collegiate Investors and the professional Foreign Service Fraternity, Delta Phi Epsilon. He can’t wait to get to know everyone throughout this summer at MUNI!
Curan Vanderwielen
Curan VanDerWielen is a rising Junior at Clark University, where he studies Political Science and Global Environmental Studies. His academic interests include international security, political ecology, and environmental security. Curan works often with Best Delegate, serving as a Diplomacy Fellow in 2018, as Editor of MUNI and MUNed Content for the 2018-19 academic year, and as a committee chair at BDMUNC 2019. He currently serves as Secretary-General of ClarkMUN X, Clark University’s annual high-school level conference, and as Under-Secretary-General for Management at WIMUN Geneva 2019. When not chronically ‘MUNing’, Curan enjoys skiing the east, drinking copious amounts of bubble tea, traveling as often as possible, and being bad at video games.
Bob Brown
Bob Brown is a Michigan State University alumnus who has served as Secretary-General of MSUMUN, one of the largest high school conferences in Michigan. He served as a crisis director leading the backroom, and on the circuit he won awards in various specialized committees. Bob always strove to teach delegates how to be better speakers, researchers, and diplomats. On campus, he also worked on improving mental health services while advocating for destigmatization. He is looking forward to working with everyone this summer and hope all of you can match his MUN enthusiasm!
Alexis Knoebel
Alexis Knoebel is a rising junior studying Government and International Trade and Development at Cornell University. Hailing from sunny Florida, she has been dedicated to Model UN since her first committee session in her freshman year of high school. Since then she has served twice as an Under Secretary General for Cornell International Affairs Conference, and Head Delegate for the Cornell Competitive Team. Alexis accredits Model UN with inspiring her passion in debate and law, and is very excited to share her passion and knowledge this summer. When not in conference, she can be found practicing on Cornell’s varsity Polo team, procrastinating studying for the LSAT, or playing Dungeons and Dragons.
Albert Gunnison
Albert Gunnison is a rising senior at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Originally from Bow, New Hampshire, Albert lived for five years in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where he first fell in love with Model United Nations in the tenth grade. Throughout six years of Model UN experience, Albert has attended conferences in the UAE, Qatar, China, Singapore, Canada, and the U.S., and he hopes to add more countries to that list in the future. At McGill, Albert studies Economics and Political Science. He is a passionate Boston sports fan (especially for the Celtics) and loves all things Boston.
Josh Lewis
Josh was born and raised in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. In high school, Josh was an avid member of the marching band, speech team, and drama club. He now attends UC Berkeley, studying Political Science and Public Policy, where he is an active trainer, delegate, and BayMUN director-general for UC Berkeley MUN. Josh hopes to go to law school to become a constitutional lawyer after UC Berkeley. He is incredibly excited to be a part of MUNI and can’t wait to meet and work with all of his delegates!
Logan Smith
Logan Smith is a rising senior at the University of Miami, where he studies Jazz Vocal Performance, as well as Political Science on a Pre-Law track. Logan carries with him a strong passion for Model UN, attending and staffing over fifteen conferences during his three year tenure on the highly-ranked University of Miami traveling team. Smith has also recently served as the Secretary General for the Miami-Dade Model United Nations conference. In the past, Logan has worked with the Best Delegate Model United Nations Institute as a Residential Counselor, working to enhance student knowledge of the activity of Model UN, while also working to promote strong personal development in his students. Logan’s focus in Model UN lies in Social and Humanitarian Affairs, bringing a collaborative attitude into committee. He is so excited to be returning to MUNI as a Diplomacy Fellow for 2019!
Madeleine Northfield
Madeleine Northfield is a second year International Relations major at McGill University, in Montreal, Canada. Madeleine has been involved with MUN for 7 years and was a Diplomacy Fellow last summer with MUNI. Madeleine has also worked with Best Delegate as Social Media Manager this year and when she isn’t doing MUN can be found relaxing on a beach or exploring new parts of Toronto, where she is originally from. Madeleine is super excited to meet all the new MUNI students this year and see lots of familiar faces from last year as well!
Residential Counselors
Rebecca Pfieffer
Rebecca Pfeiffer is a rising Junior at Fordham University majoring in International Studies with minors in French and English. At Fordham, she is the President of their Model UN team, reestablishing their travel team and expanding their scope to international conferences. Further, she is Vice President of the Running Club, a member of the West Wing political science focused Integrated Learning Community within the Fordham residence halls, and a participant in the Climate Impact Board of the Social Innovation Collaboratory on campus. Over the course of the past three summers, she has been a counselor for the Kids @ Play Summer Recreation Program in her hometown of Upton, MA. She has formerly held leadership roles on the Residence Halls Association at Fordham and participated as a delegate in the 2018 Youth ECOSOC Forum at the UN. Rebecca is looking forward to meeting all of the new participants for the 2019 Model United Nations Institute at Best Delegate this summer!
Jamey Battle
Jamey Battle is currently a UCSB second year Economics and Global studies double major and minoring in Professional Writing. She is heavily involved in Model United Nations and is currently the Secretary General for UCSB’s 2019 conference. Jamey loves history, poetry, traveling and coffee! She strives to pursue a law degree and work in low income communities.
Klaus Griesemer
Klaus is a rising junior at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business where he is studying Marketing, Law, and International Business. At Indiana, Klaus has served as a Resident Assistant in Foster Quadrangle for a floor of fifty-five freshman residents for the past year. He has participated in Model United Nations since sophomore year of high school, and became president of his school’s delegation during his senior year. As a part of IndianaMUN, he served as chair of DISEC for two consecutive years, and has travelled around the country representing Indiana as the organization quickly becomes an emerging force on the circuit. In the business school, Klaus is a peer coach for Strategic Business Writing teams. He previously held the philanthropy chair for the Kelley Living Learning Center, and business-oriented residential conglomerate of about 800 students. Having attended International Schools his entire life, Klaus has developed a passion for global-mindedness and diplomacy. Last summer, he traveled to India to represent the university on an academic and professional tour.
