Our Community

In Conversation.

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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

Martina

Community Profile July 15, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Martina Bergues MPA ’23

“I think it's very natural to have an interest in public policy when you are from a very unequal country, and growing up in São Paulo, Brazil, inequality is part of daily life. I think I was always searching for a career that would allow me to have an impact on reducing inequalities. Prior to @Princeton, I worked for the São Paulo city government for five years.

Axidi Iglesias '23

Community Profile July 08, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Axidi Iglesias '23

“Growing up as part of a mixed-status family in Santa Ana, there were a lot of ICE raids in Southern California, and there were regular demonstrations as people were getting deported. Because my community is a low-income, predominantly Hispanic community, there are not a lot of opportunities to leave. I was able to go to the Brooks School in Boston through a program called “A Better Chance,” which changed my life.

Matt Parker

Community Profile July 01, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Matt Parker, Director, IT

"Growing up in Alaska, I was a bit removed from technology and started down the road of studying accounting. I had always found that solving simple calculations was easy for me and working at a bank sounded good. As I got into my junior year of high school, I was tinkering around and figured out how to bypass password-protected screensavers on my friends’ computers. I was hooked. Computer security is really what got me interested in computers and led me down this path of technology. Being in IT is actually a lot of investigative work, you have to take what the user and the technology is telling you to determine what is actually happening.

Zainab Amjad

Community Profile June 27, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Zainab Amjad MPA '22

Before I came to Princeton, I worked with governments in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Saint Lucia on implementing policy reform, specifically in sanitation and education. Governments spend a lot of time on getting policy right but not nearly enough on the implementation of reforms. I was in an exciting space. The chief minister of a province or prime minister of a country was directly backing the work of the teams I was part of, which gave us the runway to translate policies into action and results. I had memorable experiences in Punjab. We translated a solid waste management roadmap to cleaner cities. We spent time in the oddest of places that no one…

Jia Jun Lee

Community Profile June 10, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Jia Jun Lee MPA ’22

Growing up in Southeast Asia in the ’90s, I experienced severe air pollution from forest fires, usually caused by forest clearing for palm oil plantations. I developed asthma and became passionate about the environment and how to make economic development sustainable without depleting your natural assets. I am a first-generation student. My father was the only person in his family to complete high school, and my mom didn't get the opportunity to go to college.

Abby Meyers

Community Profile June 03, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Abby Meyers ’22

"Being at Princeton gives you a purpose to be better, to do your best work, but also to challenge yourself and make yourself a little bit uncomfortable in certain discussions where growth is the output. I experienced this both indirectly and directly in academics and sports. My first Junior Paper (JP) was on Black Lives Matter and Civil Rights protests, looking at the effects protests have on U.S. policy. That's been my main focus at SPIA because it's such a prevalent issue and one that’s grabbed people's attention. My classes were tailored to criminal justice and civil rights issues, discussing topics like the 2014 and 2020 protests, so I've taken…

A woman with long brown hair

Community Profile June 03, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Valeria Torres-Olivares ’22

My family created Festival Cultural Latino to provide a space for Latine artisans, musicians, dancers, and restaurants to celebrate and be recognized.

Nitya Agrawal

Community Profile May 28, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Nitya Agrawal MPA ’22

“Living globally helped me to think more critically about how much of a difference public policy can make in the economic and social contexts of places. I moved around a lot growing up — and lived in New York, Tokyo, Delhi, and Phoenix — which gave me exposure to vastly different economic, political, and social contexts. This got me interested in exploring a global career and studying international relations and, eventually, policy. Before coming to SPIA, I spent three years in India working with a team that was collaborating directly with the national government on informing their National Nutrition Mission. That's when I became passionate about…

Christian Potter

Community Profile May 20, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Christian Potter ’22

“Prior to SPIA, I spent two summers on Capitol Hill working in the House of Representatives. I had an amazing time and saw some pretty important moments legislatively and the behind-the-scenes of how things work in the legislature.

Helene Benveniste

Community Profile May 06, 2022

#Changemakers: Hélène Benveniste Ph.D. ’21

Climate-driven migration is having global impacts, something Hélène Benveniste Ph.D. ’21 is acutely aware of thanks to her research. There are an increasing number of people who need to move and don’t have the resources to do so. Helping these hidden communities should be top of mind for policymakers. In this episode of #Changemakers, she discusses her research on climate change policy, as well as the challenges she faces as a woman in academia. She also shares advice for anyone considering a Ph.D. at SPIA. Benveniste is a postdoctoral environmental fellow at the Harvard University Center for the Environment at the Harvard Kennedy School. She…

Cassidy Barnes

Community Profile April 08, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Cassidy Barnes ’22

“Parts of my identity — from being a woman to being low income to being black — were powerful factors in shaping the way I see the world. Everyone's views are shaped by their life experiences, and mine is often going to be one that's underrepresented. If I want my opinion to be heard, I'm going to have to be the one to speak up. That’s why I got involved in the Scholars Institute Fellows Program via Princeton's Emma Bloomberg Center for Access and Opportunity, which is a group dedicated to helping first-generation and low-income students.

Image of a student wearing a gray sweater.

Community Profile April 06, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Christian Keith MPA '23

I am interested in developments through an economic lens such as tax policy priorities and wealth redistribution.

Elise Hill

Community Profile April 01, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Elise Hill MPA ’22

“I am active-duty military; I went to the Air Force Academy for my undergraduate studies and then moved back home to Iowa afterward, where I attended the University of Iowa for medical school. I'm currently a general surgery resident at the University of California, Davis, and I’m using my research time to pursue the Master in Public Policy (MPP) degree at SPIA. I started the program in the fall, and it’s given me a fund of knowledge to draw from. When I was considering what degree to pursue, I knew I wanted it to be policy-involved.

KTC

Community Profile February 08, 2022

#Changemakers: Kiersten Todt '94

Kiersten Todt '94 is chief of staff at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Prior to her current role, she served as managing director of the Cyber Readiness Institute, a nonprofit she founded. Todt served in the federal government in 2016 as the executive director of President Obama’s independent bipartisan commission on enhancing national cybersecurity. She also previously worked for the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. She graduated from Princeton in 1994 with an undergraduate degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (now SPIA) and earned a Master in…

Paco Garcia Bellego MPA ‘23

Community Profile January 28, 2022

#PolicyProfile: Paco Garcia Bellego MPA ‘23

My successes define me as much as my failures. That’s an important part of my story.