City: Oakland, CA
Occupation: Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program Manager, Swords to Plowshares
I have witnessed the need to rethink not just public policies but organizational practices in homeless services. Booth is uniquely positioned to address both with its curricular flexibility and academic strength. But I was also looking for more than an MBA: I was looking for a small community that would ask big questions about business and the public good. I found this in Civic Scholars.
I want to make homeless services more impactful, efficient, and humane. I hope to eventually lead my own direct service organization, one that’s as obsessed with product design as the tech companies of my hometown and sets a new standard for client accessibility in the social sector.
Booth’s Chicago Approach gives students frameworks for thinking about problems and then confronts those frameworks with data. This is exactly what’s needed in homeless services, and exactly why I chose Booth. Answers to challenges in homelessness and employment services often hinge upon assumptions about what should work and what has worked in studies. But I want to figure out what does work and what will work in practice so we can achieve lasting results for people in the United States and the world. Focusing on econometrics and finance at Booth, I aim to grow as a manager, decision-maker, and critical thinker.
