Drew Wessels

Brumley Scholar, Cybersecurity Clinic Student

Drew Wessels is a junior at the University of Texas at Austin studying Economics, International Relations, and Middle Eastern Studies, with minors in International Business and National Security Studies. He is interested in how institutions manage risk and complexity, and in how economic and technological systems shape modern governance and security.

At UT, Drew has worked with the Global Disinformation Lab and the Innovations for Peace and Development Lab, where he examined how information environments and governance choices affect public trust and political stability. As a Brumley NextGen Scholar with the Strauss Center, he studied bureaucratic fragmentation across U.S. national security institutions for the Red Sea region and developed policy recommendations to improve interagency coordination; and he is also an undergraduate fellow with the Clements Center for National Security.

In fall 2024, Drew worked with a local NGO in Tunis, Tunisia while completing intensive Arabic coursework, and has participated in national security–focused programs in Israel-Palestine, South Korea, Singapore, and the U.K. Through the Texas Cyber Clinic, he is excited to build practical fluency in how digital systems are secured and how policy decisions translate into real-world operational safeguards, helping guide his future work in public service or policy research.