1. Tell us about yourself: What’s your educational background/professional experience?  

My name is Tiffany Chen - a Policy Experimentation Analyst with Thailand Policy Lab (TP Lab), UNDP Thailand. Prior to joining UNDP, I worked in the field of people development, human resource, skills enhancement, policy experimentation, EdTech, operations and project management at various organizations, such as Virgin Active Thailand and Nikkei Business Lab Asia; Excedo by Nikkei & The Financial Times. I am familiar with developing training curriculums, implementing development programs, managing international forums and summits for various institutions such as Srinakarinwirot University, Thammasat University, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Thailand), US embassy, ASEAN4U (Malaysia), etc. Fun fact about me, I am the champion of the nationally televised competition (Fan Pan Tae) – US Presidents (2012). My passion is in people development and I have spent my adult life preparing towards this goal.

I’m really excited about the opportunity to contribute to innovative policy solutions at the Thailand Policy Lab. UNDP Thailand’s commitment to sustainable development and people-centric policies aligns perfectly with my passion for people development. I look forward to making a meaningful impact here.

2. What made you apply to work with one of the Labs of UNDP Thailand? 

Since young, I’ve always wanted to be a part of the UN organizations. My interest has always revolve around development of human and the society. 
I’ve engaged in development works since young, but is also aware that some of the projects I do are one-offs events. Thus, I aim to work in an environment where the impacts are more sustainable and the people or the community themselves can sustain the actions and development or even improve the practice in the long run. With the opening of Thailand Policy Lab, UNDP, it’s a great opportunity to fulfil my dream of sustainable development and realized policy innovation for all 😊

3. What are your activities or main responsibilities? What is a day at the office like?

TPLab’s vision is reimagining policymaking with the emphasis on people at the center of policymaking with the use of various innovative methodologies. Thus, we work a lot with various partners; public sectors, private sectors, etc. 

We work in both the UNDP office, or crossover to the NESDC office and also a lot in the community. My responsibility is mainly explore and experiment on the policy innovation. So it includes working with a lot of partners in planning the issues to tackle, testing the policy recommendations, as well as building capacity for the stakeholders such as government officers, academia, university students, youths, community leaders, private sectors and much more which then became the foundation of the community of innovators. Because change must come from the power of many who would help steer and push development further.