Dr Sylvia C. Frain is an activist academic working for decolonization and demilitarization in the non-self-governing Mariana Islands. She is an inaugural 2024 Indo-Pacific Leadership Lab fellow with the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, with support from The Japan Foundation, Tokyo. Previously, as a photojournalist in the Republic of Timor-Leste, she completed her Master’s thesis at the University of Queensland, Australia in 2012.

Sylvia earned her Ph.D. in Peace and Conflict Studies at The National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies | Te Ao O Rongomaraeroa at the University of Otago | Te Whare Wānanga Otāgo in Ōtepoti | Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand.