Our Community

In Conversation.

group of students

group of students

"I've found that being willing to try new things, even if they involve risk, has made a big difference in my work."

Angel Padilla, MPA '13

Community Profile November 12, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Bryson Rose MPP ’23

"In 2017, I went to Haiti and witnessed significant infrastructure challenges from the earthquake and from hurricanes. They're already a country that has experienced significant financial hardships, and that will be a continued way of life for countries like Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Cuba as we see the continued effects of climate change. There's drought, there's famine, and there are all sorts of increasing intimate weather. There are heavy concentrations of people of color, queer and trans people in these areas, and I think it's important that 1) we’re doing something about the climate and 2) as we start to invest in these infrastructures that folks…

Noah Bardash pictured on political campaign.

Community Profile November 04, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Noah Bardash MPA ’24

"In the aftermath of the 2016 election, I took a hard look at what I was doing with my time and where I saw my best avenues for making change. I started as an intern for then-Senator Claire McCaskill's campaign for reelection, and after I graduated from the University of Washington in 2018, I worked as a field organizer for the Missouri Democratic Party.

Christian Pollard

Community Profile October 28, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Christian Pollard ’23

“I grew up in rural Alabama on a cattle ranch in a town of, at the time, 409 people. Living in a rural area, it's virtually impossible to access healthcare. It would be months before I could see my doctor sometimes; if I needed to see a specialist, I’d have to travel an hour and a half away to Birmingham. I realized how unfair it is that so many Americans live like that. When I got to Princeton, I realized how infrequent conversations about rural areas are. Almost every paper about social justice or economic inequalities was always centered around urban areas. Those are important topics, but I was always a little bit frustrated. I wrote one of my JPs…

Uma Menon standing behind a SPIA banner.

Community Profile October 16, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Uma Menon ’24

“My first book, “Hands for Language,” was about my experience as a daughter of immigrants growing up in America and my identity as a woman of color. I grew up speaking Malayalam as my first language, and I think that set me on a path to have a strong sense of cultural appreciation. My family is from a state called Kerala, where matrilineal culture is still prevalent.

Community Profile October 08, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Austin Edwards MPP ’23

“My parents instilled in me the value of giving back to the community, not just in our home but also through our church. I was born in Trenton and saw some of the issues that are fairly normal in an inner city, a lot involving poverty. The symptoms include homelessness and food insecurity, but a lot of it stems from economic instability. I volunteered to address these issues, directly and indirectly, by feeding people, clothing people, and dealing with homelessness.

Billy Doyle

Community Profile October 01, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Billy Doyle ’24

“My foundational years were during a time when Brexit was the presiding issue of everything in the UK. This issue dominated the news throughout those years when I was starting to develop an interest in public and international affairs and find the grounds for my ideology. Scottish independence influenced my views and my interest in the subject of policy as well — ideas around sovereignty and what it means to be a nation, how international relations have historically been altered, and how they might look in the future. These events shaped how I view international relations in the larger world.

Anna Blue MPA '24

Community Profile September 23, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Anna Blue MPA ’24

“Going to school in Silicon Valley, I was constantly exposed to themes about democracy and technology. I always planned on going into the federal government, but after graduating from @Stanford, I did a huge 180 and ended up at a think tank where we did research on technology, journalism, and freedom of expression. I then spent a year in Estonia on a Fulbright research grant at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies at @UniTartu, focusing my research on e-governance.

Helene Wood, Faculty Assistant

Community Profile September 18, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Helene Wood, Faculty Assistant

“When I was four, my family moved from our home in the San Francisco Bay area to Switzerland for my dad’s job. We traveled around Europe, and my sister and I both attended Swiss schools until the 5th grade when we moved back to California. Returning to the States, we moved to what is now known as Silicon Valley but used to be full of fruit orchards and lots of open land. After high school, I attended college at San Francisco State and took a job at a software company after graduation.

Rayna Truelove

Community Profile September 09, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Rayna Truelove, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

From an early age, I recognized the inequality in my home of New Orleans and in the South in general. Even as a teenager, I was thinking, ‘How am I paying it forward, ensuring I can make education more accessible?’ I left New Orleans for college in San Antonio at @trinityU to pursue neuroscience as an undergraduate and @BrownU for my Ph.D. Neuroscientists are curious people, and we tend to kind of be interdisciplinary people, too. I'm always still learning and am inquisitive and humble. Early on in my administrative career, I recognized that I wasn’t going to be an expert in a lot of these different spaces in terms of academic concentrations, but I…

Odette Overton MPA ’23

Community Profile September 02, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Odette Overton MPA ’23

“I’m intuition oriented, curious, and driven to understand the world around me. In 2nd grade, I was asked to write a short story but instead wrote a research book on underwater animals complete with citations. Not much has changed since. I’m also drawn to decision-making and how everyone’s personal experiences shape their perspectives. These characteristics are likely what led me down an indirect path to policy. I’m originally from Los Angeles and went to @uscedu. Since then, I’ve held several positions, including working at a jury consulting firm for several years. But it wasn’t fulfilling, so I left and went on a bit of a sabbatical where I worked…

Joanna Kovac

Community Profile August 26, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Joanna Kovac, Academic Coordinator

“I was always an avid reader, and I think that played a role in my passion for education. It’s kind of funny that I chose higher ed as a career; no one in my family went to college until my sister. Books made my world bigger. By reading, I got a glimpse of the different places and people out there. To me, education seemed like the pathway to meet those people, go to those places, and do those things that sounded so amazing in books. I was an English major at the University of Pennsylvania. I had a work-study job in an admissions office on campus and got a full-time job in admissions after I graduated. I thought about law school for a while and even…

Nancy Huth

Community Profile August 12, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Nancy Huth, Faculty Assistant

“Sometimes it feels very surreal, to be employed at Princeton. I’ve been at SPIA for eight years, and I still have times when I'm walking on campus when I think, ‘I can’t believe I work here!’ The campus is full of really smart people who are doing some pretty amazing things, and it’s great because every day is different. I came to the university from a corporate environment, and I really love the flexibility that being in higher education brings. My original intent was to work with kids and teens. I always kind of felt like I didn't fit in places very easily. I was shy and just kept to myself. I went to Montclair State University and was a…

Alexis Runner

Community Profile August 05, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Alexis Runner, Faculty Assistant

“Being a #firstgen college student was something I set out to accomplish from an early age. Having parents who never finished college — and had struggles in their careers because of it — was a huge motivator for me. My parents are amazing and have provided me and my brother with everything we could want and more, but seeing their struggles put a drive in me to do even better in my adult life and for my future children. I knew getting a degree would put me on the right path to a good job and, hopefully, one that I love. I earned my degree in business administration from Thomas Edison State University, and I plan on going back to the school at the start…

Marie Burke

Community Profile July 29, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Marie Burke, Program Coordinator, Career Development and Alumni Relations

"A foodie at heart, I use my planning skills when I travel and in the kitchen, particularly for my Instagram @kitchensansgluten. My vacation itinerary is literally scheduled around food. My son, who just turned 16, has food allergies, so I spend a lot of time cooking. I enjoy food staging and taking photos, sometimes more than the actual cooking. I was born and raised in the Philippines and have lived in several diverse cities, including Singapore, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, and Princeton. The combination of where I’ve been and where I’ve worked — such as the National Kidney Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, and the Friends of the Princeton…

Claire Kaufman at the Capitol

Community Profile July 22, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Claire Kaufman MPA '23

“When I first learned about climate change in high school, I couldn’t understand why so little had been done. The solution seemed simple enough: We all need clean air and clean water, and, to get there, we need clean energy. But the barriers were in the policy. I studied environmental economics and policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and then moved to Arizona to work on biodiversity and endangered species protection. However, my path wasn’t linear, and I suppose it never will be. I got very sick in 2017. Once I regained my strength, I decided to be a yoga teacher. I also worked at a cafe and led community workshops on sustainability…