Dr. Simonas Cepenas graduated from the University of Virginia (UVA) with a PhD in Foreign Affairs. During his time at UVA he pursued research on authoritarian regimes and international crises, presented his findings at American Political Science Association (APSA) Annual Meeting among other international conferences, and taught classes including Comparative Politics, The Politics of Western Europe, Introduction to Game Theory, and Game Theory and Interstate Conflict. While at UVA, Simonas actively engaged with local Charlottesville community by teaching primary, middle and high school students about math, statistics, and game theory. Simonas also holds an MA degree in Government and Foreign Affairs from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and BS in Economics from ISM University of Management and Economics. During his time at ISM Simonas spent a year in Norway and received a double degree from BI Norwegian Business School. Prior to choosing to spend five years on his doctorate Simonas worked as a researcher at PPMI and EESC.