Alumni Profile: Sonnet Frisbie, MPP'21, Pearson Fellow

Sonnet Frisbie joined Harris after ten years of working in the United States Foreign Service. “I have always been very interested in international affairs and culture. When I was fifteen, I participated in an exchange program funded through the Rotary Club, and I’ve been hooked on international affairs ever since.”

After graduating with a bachelor’s in international relations and economics from Pepperdine University, Frisbie began her career in the U.S. Department of State. “I’ve worked overseas in four different countries in four very different capacities,” she said. “First on immigration at the Mexican border, then human rights issues in Prague. Next I was sent to northern Iraq to investigate financial transactions and lead efforts to increase business ties. And then I was stationed in Poland where I covered trade, investment, and commercial diplomacy.”

Frisbie and her team saved U.S. investors as much as $2 billion through her commercial diplomacy work in Poland. During that same campaign, she was also awarded a Meritorious Honor Award for her insightful macro-economic reporting in 2017.

After completing her work in Poland, Frisbie sought a greater quantitative toolkit that she could use to better inform diplomatic decisions. “Quantitative decision-making is woefully underutilized in diplomacy, but there is a highly analytical side to what we do. I wanted to gain more quantitative skills so I could not only analyze economic trends but also use data to inform policy.”

Frisbie started the MPP program in 2019 and took the Advanced Microeconomics sequence, taught by Steans Professor in Education Policy Steven Durlauf as part of the Core curriculum. “Durlauf is such a profound professor. He really thinks critically about the implications of the theory he teaches. A lot of the concepts he taught have stuck with me to this day.”

Frisbie also took advantage of the opportunity to take elective courses elsewhere on the UChicago campus, including the Booth School of Business. “I got to take a fantastic course on international financial policy at Booth from Professor Brent Neiman, and I also took a seminar on International Relations Theory in the political science department taught by Professor Robert Pape. And these were in addition to electives I took on macroeconomics and development economics, which added rigor to concepts I use all the time in my work now. The flexibility of the degree allowed me to take advantage of all of these great courses.”

While at Harris, Frisbie also was a Fellow at The Pearson Institute. “I strove to use the amazing resources that The Pearson Institute offers to its fellows—research opportunities and access to distinguished professors and practitioners in the field—to organize my thinking around international affairs and conflict. The best thing for me about the fellowship was being part of a small cadre within the larger Harris community. I feel a powerful affinity with Pearson fellows, past and present, and want to contribute to their professional development and success.”

After completing the program, Frisbie returned to the State Department as Financial Economist covering African debt issues and working on digital assets policy. She then joined Morning Consult as a Managing Director for their Geopolitical Risk Division for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. There, she provides global leaders with the necessary data and analysis to navigate changing geopolitical landscapes and assess political risk. 

The quantitative abilities I gained at Harris couple with my existing experience to position me as someone with a unique skill-set," Frisbie said. "Despite the challenges of completing my Harris degree during COVID, it has launched me on a new trajectory."