Thomas Emens ’25, MPA ’29, of Jamesburg, New Jersey, is a senior in the Department of Politics. One of the youngest elected officials in New Jersey, he currently serves as Council President of Jamesburg and briefly held the position of Acting Mayor in 2024. Elected to the Borough Council in November 2022 during his first semester at Princeton, Emens work has focused on infrastructure improvements, departmental reforms, and working with state and federal partners to secure resources for Jamesburg. A longtime advocate for public institutions, he has served as a trustee of the Jamesburg Public Library since he was 17 and spearheaded its revitalization. Emens also chairs the Borough Council’s Personnel, Environmental, and Buildings & Grounds Committees.

Emens was previously a member of the Electoral Processes Team at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) in Stockholm, Sweden, contributing to projects on global election observation and constitution building. As the 2024 Gilbert S. Omenn ’61 and Martha A. Darling MPA ’70 SINSI Intern Scholar, Emens was a member of the Community Jobs and Justice Team in the Loan Programs Office at the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C., where he contributed to the team’s implementation of Biden Administration initiatives aimed at uplifting disadvantaged communities through clean energy investments. 

A member of Princeton’s fifth cohort of transfer students, Emens holds an associate degree in liberal arts, highest honors, from Middlesex County College. On campus, Emens has served as the President of the Princeton Transfer Association, a Transfer / Veteran Mentor with the Emma Bloomberg Center for Access and Opportunity, and has been involved with the Pace Center’s Civic Leadership Council, the American Whig–Cliosophic Society, USG Academics Committee, and the Office of Admissions as a Transfer Ambassador.