Professional Skills

    The MPA program has provided me with great opportunities to develop diverse analytical and problem-solving skills.  I have learned how to conduct budget projections and trend analysis and applied these skills to examining the California State Parks Budget.  In a course focused specifically on migration policy studies I studied policy alternatives for increasing health care access for California’s migrant farmer-workers.  Through studying human resource management I learned skills in workforce planning, both technical aspects of projecting attrition levels as well as big picture strategic planning regarding workforce competencies.  These projects have strengthened my skills and provided me with a new set of tools to apply as a public manager.

California State Parks Budget Proposal and Analysis
Health Care Access for California Migrant Farmer-workers
National Park Service Workforce Plan
Urban Growth Boundaries Research Proposal

In addition to my academic work, I have had the opportunity as a graduate student to work directly with agencies and community organizations to apply skills learned in the program.  For a course on nonprofit resource development, I worked as a development intern with Meals on Wheels and created a resource development plan. 

As a graduate intern with the Information Technology and Management Services Division for the California Public Utilities Commission, I developed and implemented a research project I designed to analyze the current information technology (IT) use of employees.  After collecting the data (achieving a 40% response rate), I analyzed the results using SPSS software to conduct descriptive and inferential statistics.  The report I produced is being used for strategic planning purposes.

Lastly, as a research assistant for an independent study project I performed the data analysis for an ethnographic interview research and advocacy project on teacher attrition in San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD).   I was tasked with analyzing narrative data from interviews performed by policy fellows with the Teachers Leadership Institute.  During this project I learned about the intricacies of analyzing and coding qualitative data.  More importantly, this project offered me an opportunity to participate and support the inspirational work of teachers making a difference for San Francisco communities.