Before joining ISS, Tristan spent two years as a journalist based in Tunisia and was managing editor of Tunisia Live. Prior to that, he was a program officer at the New York University Center on International Cooperation, where he studied statebuilding and peacebuilding in transitioning states. He also worked as the youth and community relations coordinator for Habitat for Humanity in New York City, and interned with the Center on Arms Control and Non-Proliferation and the office of former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm. Tristan has an MA in Politics from New York University and did his undergraduate work at the University of Michigan.