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"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
Maribel Hernández Rivera MPA ’10
Community Profile September 07, 2021
Maribel Hernández Rivera MPA ’10
Maribel Hernández Rivera MPA ’10 came to the United States, undocumented from Mexico, when she was 13 years old. Since then, she’s dedicated her life to immigration law and policy. Today, she is district director for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). She previously served as executive director of legal initiatives for the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and as a supervising attorney at Immigrant Justice Corps. She received her J.D. from New York University School of Law, her Master in Public Affairs from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA, which was then the Woodrow Wilson School), and her A.B. from…
Man in a shirt with blue flowers
Community Profile September 03, 2021
#PolicyProfile: Chuck Crosby, Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment
What I like most about my job is that it allows me to be of service to others.
Woman sits in front of a tree
Community Profile August 27, 2021
#PolicyProfile: Michele Epstein, Assistant Director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics
From students to fellows and faculty, I am lucky to be able to stay connected to this extended community throughout the world.
yusf
Community Profile August 24, 2021
Yusuf Dahl MPA ’17
Growing up in poverty, Yusuf Dahl survived the streets of Milwaukee under the wing of his brother. By age 14, he was in juvenile detention for a three-year sentence for drug dealing. After serving five years and teaching himself software development, Dahl struggled to find a living wage as a young black male with a criminal record. This, combined with the foreclosure crisis destroying his own community, made Dahl take his future into his own hands. He founded the Milwaukee Metro Management, an award-winning affordable housing development and management company with a vision of creating high quality affordable housing. Dahl currently serves as the…
Woman in a gray jacket
Community Profile August 16, 2021
#PolicyProfile: Kristen DeCaires Gall, Assistant Director for the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project
My life has changed so much since I was doing fieldwork; before COVID-19, I tried to do one trip a year, at least, to try to keep my mindset right.
Ladi
Community Profile July 19, 2021
James Ladi Williams MPA ’18
A zip code can define one’s destiny and, for many, this means a lifetime of poverty. To move people out of poverty, governments will need to make policy choices that tackle barriers to economic opportunity, while emboldening people to be agents of change in their own communities. This drives the work of James Ladi Williams MPA ’18, a research analyst in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute. At an early age, Williams became keenly aware of how breakdowns in the provision of public services made life difficult for children and families in his home city of Lagos, Nigeria. In this Q&A and bonus podcast below,…
Rich
Community Profile July 19, 2021
Rich Harwood MPA ’84
As the president and founder of the Harwood Institute of Public Innovation, Rich Harwood, MPA '84, is passionate about seeing communities do their best. The Harwood Institute’s mission is to empower communities with the tools to bridge divides, build capacity, and tackle shared challenges. His newest book, “Unleashed: A Proven Way Communities Can Spread Change and Make Hope Real for All,” focuses on promoting civic culture and creating positive, lasting impacts. In this Q&A and bonus podcast, Harwood discusses what makes for an effective leader and how Princeton SPIA influenced his career. Princeton Policy Podcasts · Good Leadership is…
Changemakers BeccaSharp
Community Profile July 01, 2021
Becca Sharp MPA/MBA ’15
As chief operating officer of IDinsight, Becca Sharp MPA/MBA ’15 is passionate about enabling social impact organizations to maximize their efforts — using data and evidence to help leaders combat poverty worldwide. Becca has led IDinsight through a sustained period of exponential growth, during which the organization went from 50 staff to nearly 200 global teammates working across five regional offices. She has implemented organizational systems and people operations best practices tailored to the mission and budget of a nonprofit. Previously, she was a strategy consultant working for the Rockefeller Foundation and other large philanthropies, and…
Ashwin Mahadevan '22
Community Profile June 04, 2021
Ashwin Mahadevan ’22
“My dad was the embodiment of service. If he went on a trip, he’d be the last person off of the airplane because he would help an elderly passenger with their bags. Even in the final months of his battle with cancer, he served meals to the homeless in Philadelphia nearly every weekend. Thanks to him, the importance of service, of all types, was instilled in me since childhood. Also, both of my parents are immigrants from #India. As a first-generation American, part of me has always been drawn to giving back to the country where my parents made their life. As such, coming to @Princeton, I was interested in @PrincetonSPIA because I want to eventually…
Martín E. De Simone MPP ’18
Community Profile May 27, 2021
Martín E. De Simone MPA ’18
Martín E. De Simone MPA ’18 works as an education specialist for the World Bank in the Western and Central Africa region. Before that, he worked for the Office of the Vice President of the Africa Region and for several governments, think tanks, and civil society organizations on the intersection between human development and violence, as well as on institutional reforms. An Argentinian national, Martin was director of education and security for the federal government of his country, where he led several programs in coordination with national universities. In this Q&A and bonus podcast, he discusses how growing up during the Argentinian economic…
Angela Evans MPP ’21
Community Profile May 25, 2021
Angela Evans MPP ’21
“‘What is your five-year plan?’ It’s one of life’s most stressful questions. My answer: ‘I’m not sure, but I know the best is yet to come.’ I am embracing that life presents unexpected opportunities, and you must be brave enough to take them when they come. Interested in international policy but having no educational background in foreign affairs, I was spinning my wheel trying to navigate how to work at the @unitednations. At an unrelated conference I attended annually, I had seen a man present several times about his continued work at the U.N. with the United Arab Emirates. He was very distinguished and a bit intimidating, but I mustered the courage…
Yasmin
Community Profile May 13, 2021
Yasmin Elhady MPP ’15
Yasmin Elhady MPP ’15 is an attorney, public policy specialist, and stand-up comedian. She’s performed all over Washington, D.C., including at The Kennedy Center and The DC Improv, and she’s toured nationally and internationally in the United Kingdom. Her alter ego is “Yasguru,” a hyperactive relationship advisor with silly videos on YouTube and Instagram. In this Q&A and bonus podcast, she discusses how 9/11 and being a Muslim immigrant shaped her career path to public service and how a talent show at SPIA helped her start her stand-up career. Princeton Policy Podcasts · Big Risks, Big Opportunities (Yasmin Elhady MPP ‘15) Q. Tell us about…
Melania Guerra Carrillo MPP ’21
Community Profile May 12, 2021
Melania Guerra Carrillo MPP ’21
“When I was five, my grandpa gave me a book about Heinrich Schliemann, the archaeologist who discovered the ancient city of Troy. I couldn’t believe there were jobs that didn’t entail going to an office from 9 to 5 — instead, people traveled, made discoveries, and invented tools! I started to look at who had these jobs and was fascinated by Jacques Cousteau and the space shuttle flights of Franklin Chang-Díaz — a Costa Rican, like myself, who became the first Latino to join @NASA’s astronaut corps. I didn’t understand then that what they all had in common was #science, but I was sure I wanted to lead that kind of a nontraditional, adventurous life…
Joshua Seawell MPA ’22
Community Profile May 04, 2021
Joshua Seawell MPA ’22
“Between having a Belgian mother and growing up on and around @usairforce bases all over Europe, I had a lot of exposure to slightly different ways of doing things. For one, I noticed many European cities are designed completely differently. Being built much earlier than American cities, their layouts reflect a much earlier paradigm of #urban planning. As I got older, I also noticed that welfare policies and the social safety net are much more generous in Western Europe. Majoring in urban studies at @stanford, I had this crystal-clear picture of different ways U.S. cities could look and how they could be built for more walkability and density, how…
Hua Qu MPP ’21
Community Profile April 23, 2021
Hua Qu MPP ’21
“When my husband was imprisoned in Iran, I became collateral damage of the great power games. Each time the U.S. policy on Iran seemed to shift, it raised my hope. When things were static, I was the most desperate. I remember sending Solzhenitsyn’s book ‘Gulag Archipelago’ to my husband when he was in prison. He told me that Iran used the same tactics on innocent people. Through very bleak times, I delt with government officials of all levels, the press and many non-governmental interlocutors who were willing to help. My husband’s case was so intertwined with various political interests from Iran to America, I had to learn to be politically savvy,…