While only a few months into a professional career in international trade, Marisa Jones already has wide experience with vastly different approaches to global commerce.
Jones is a 2024 graduate of Middlebury Institute’s international development and international trade and economic development programs and now works in global trade compliance. But before her professional success, Jones joined nine fellow graduate students and six Middlebury College undergraduates for an experiential learning trip in Southeast Asia in 2024.
Students spent one week each in Thailand and Vietnam, attempting to answer questions about China’s influence on downstream water rights and hydropower projects along the Mekong River.
Upon their return, Jones collaborated on a research article describing their findings. Professor Jessica Teets, who organized the trip with Professor Wei Liang, and fellow grad students Katherine Michaelson and MacKenzie Van Mete all worked with Jones on Green Energy in Southeast Asia: Why the U.S. Should Invest More. This analysis was published in the Eurasia Review in April 2025.
Jones said their goal was to help leaders learn from past mistakes and hear recommendations from a team that spent weeks talking with locals.
“There was so much information and very little space to explain these issues, but I am very happy to be published,” Jones said. “It felt very rewarding after working very hard.”
The bulk of the team’s effort involved a deceptively simple task: crafting the right question.
Jones recalled efforts to survey a group of women from a rural mountain village in northern Vietnam where China had built a dam and road. The road made it easier for villagers to travel and sell goods; however, the villagers—who largely rely on fishing and growing rice to earn an income—now experience extended periods of drought.
“In Vietnam and Thailand, you can’t just talk straightforwardly,” Jones said. “We had to figure out ways to diplomatically ask how [China’s influence over the local water supply] was impacting the locals, how locals are speaking out, and how institutions are engaging with this.”
Jones said cultural and political challenges provided several obstacles to conducting research and sometimes situations could become “a bust.”
“This experience really emphasized how difficult it is to write research questions,” Jones said.
We had to figure out ways to diplomatically ask how [China’s influence over the local water supply] was impacting the locals, how locals are speaking out, and how institutions are engaging with this.
Jones now works in global trade compliance for Zoll Medical, a medical device and technology company headquartered in Massachusetts. A New Hampshire native, Jones landed the job after securing an internship at a pharmaceutical company through a fellow Middlebury Institute alumnus. That internship then led to the position at Zoll Medical.
In this role, Jones connects corporate and government interests by understanding and applying executive orders that pertain to trade agreements, tariffs, and trade barriers. Inaccurate analysis can result in embargoes, fines, or jail time, Jones said.
“I ask questions very bluntly at this company,” said Jones, describing the stark differences between her global trade experience in Southeast Asia and Massachusetts.
But that’s not the only pressure Jones faces in this position. As tariff news continues to grab international headlines, Jones has a front row seat to important trade conversations.
“As someone who studied international trade and really adores that subject and believes that free trade is good for the economy, tariffs can be good. But you have to implement them correctly,” Jones said. “It’s very frustrating to watch tariffs be implemented chaotically and to understand that this is happening to every other company in the nation, even more severely.”
This deep understanding of trade dynamics gives Jones an interesting perspective—one she agrees could be compared to a meteorologist becoming excited by a natural disaster in the forecast.
“I love trade, so I feel a tiny bit of excitement for how these policies will impact other nations,” Jones said. “I like to think about predictions for what I see as a chaotic and not economically intelligent implementation of tariffs.”
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