Hometown
Fontana, California
Undergraduate education
Bachelor of arts in history, University of California San Diego
Professional/research interests
Energy policy, sustainability, labor
Expected graduation date
May 2025
Why a MPA?
Worked as a teacher for 5 years before La Follette, interested in shaping policy that impacts peoples lives.
Why the La Follette School?
A small program with plentiful PA/TA opportunities in the charming city of Madison!
Career goals
To work in state or local government. I’m interested in a wide range of fields including energy policy, labor/workforce development, general policy analyst, and more.
How have your La Follette School courses set you on the path to meeting your career goals?
By providing general policy analysis skills through plenty of class projects that allowed me to develop policy analysis skills and examine policy areas of interest to me.
Assistantship?
Yes. I am a Project Assistant for Professor Manny Teodoro. I helped him put on a symposium on the Safe Drinking Water Act 50th Anniversary and I am helping him edit a volume on the same topic that draws on research presented at this symposium.
Summer Internship
Yes, I was a Research Intern at the High Road Strategy Center (HRSC).
Primary Job Responsibilities
I worked with the HRSC’s Associate Director to support a variety of advocacy organizations that were working to leverage the job quality provisions in the IRA/BIL federal infrastructure funding. I researched the provisions in these bills, wrote memos for these partners on various topics, and identified and analyzed data on a variety of topics including low-income weatherization.
Describe a project that best illustrates your internship
Co-authored a report called The State of Working Wisconsin which analyzes labor market data for Wisconsin, including wages, unemployment, and unionization rates. This required me to gather data, analyze it, create data visualizations, and write about what this data means for working Wisconsinites.
Courses have you taken in which you’ve done work for real clients
EAP Capstone: Worked with the City of Monona to develop an emissions reduction plan for city buildings and analyze potential feasibility of renewable energy projects.
La Follette Capstone: Assessed the Wisconsin Public Service Commission’s approach to Non-Revenue Water (the water that is pumped to a utility but is never billed to customers) and recommended improvements to this process.
Advice for prospective La Follette School students
It goes quickly, so take advantage of opportunities beginning in your first semester.
Most challenging experience at the La Follette School
A course on public program evaluation was challenging because it challenged me to think in a different way, and I would recommend.
Most rewarding experience at the La Follette School
I’ve appreciated meeting classmates with very different experiences (both professional and personal) who come from all over the world.
How has the La Follette School changed the way you think about public policy?
It gave me new tools and clarified my analytical skills.
Interested in studying at the La Follette School?