Benjamin Chin

About Benjamin

Born and raised in northern New Jersey, Ben is a proud graduate of Rutgers University and currently an MPA Candidate at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. During his time at Rutgers, Ben was a resident of the Rutgers Recovery House as well as a member of the Rutgers Mountainview Project, a program supporting ex-offenders as they make the transition from incarceration to higher education. In 2013, Ben was selected as the New Jersey recipient of the 2013 Harry S. Truman Scholarship. Most recently, Ben was a lead policy analyst specializing in health care policy working at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. Ben has also worked for Abt Associates and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and was a founding member of the non-profit organization Young People in Recovery, a grassroots organization that mobilizes young people to advocate for improved recovery support services.
During his Luce Year Ben worked at the Thailand Institute of Justice in Bangkok, Thailand. He served TIJ as Drug Policy Advisor in the External Relations and Policy Coordination Office where he worked with the department team to produce a report on alternative to incarceration practices for drug involved offenders within the ASEAN region. The production of this report spanned over the course seven months and included site visits in Indonesia, Laos, and Thailand. The report also prompted a joint presentation on the topic of Treatment Alternatives for Drug Involved Offenders at the 58th session of the United Nations Commission on Narcotics Drugs with the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, Drug Policy Futures, and the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. Ben also served as the rapporteur for the United Nations Asia and Far East Institute Seminar on Promoting Community Based Treatment in the ASEAN Region. Ben produced a final report for the United Nations Asia and Far East Institute summarizing the country presentations, parallel sessions, and key findings of the seminar. When he was not fretting over the many issues of drug policy in the ASEAN region, Ben could be found at local CrossFit competitions, eating copious amounts stir fried morning glory, and wandering his way through the markets in Southeast Asia creating mental maps of each one.