• How did you select your graduate school and how did it prepare you for your career?
• Work or internship experience during graduate school
• What was the most important or useful course you took in the MPA/MPP?
• Were you a Presidential Management Intern?
• What has been your career path since graduating? What do you want to be doing in 5 years?
• What is the most exciting and/or interesting aspect of your current job?
• Do you feel your MPA/MPP is helping you to “make a difference?” How?
• What advice, if any, would you give to an undergraduate thinking about going for an MPA/MPP?

How did you select your graduate school and how did it prepare you for your career?

> I had been interning at a local Council of Government for 3 years while in college. Upon graduation, they hired me full time to be a monitor for a Jobs Training program. A flier in the copy room caught my attention. This flier told of the MPA graduate program at ASU and how it catered to professionals by conducting night classes. I began graduate school and my first “real” job simultaneously. The experience was great in that it worked out like a paid internship. The workplace provided a testing ground for organizational theories and the classroom provided opportunities to analyze my work.

Any work or internship experience during graduate school?

> I interned with the Lower Savannah Council of Governments while in college on various projects ranging from Jobs Training to Solid Waste management. Upon graduation from college with my undergraduate degree, I was hired full time in the Jobs Training department. I also started the MPA program at that time. Working at the COG was a great experience. The COG offers a wide range of programs and are flexible to adapt to the needs of the member counties by taking administrative oversight of programs that the counties and cities cannot perform on their own. Interning and eventually working at the COG progressed my career because I had valuable work experience in several different areas, which made me more qualified than other people my age vying for the same jobs.

What was the most important or useful course you took in the MPA/MPP?

> The Administrative Law class has been the most useful. Government practitioners are increasingly responsible for legal knowledge and expertise. I refer often to the textbook and briefs written during this course.

Were you a Presidential Management Intern?

> No.

What has been your career path since graduating? What do you want to be doing in 5 years?

> After graduation, I was promoted to Assistant Administrator of the Jobs Training program. After one year at that job, I left the Council of Governments to become the Special Projects Manager for Columbia County, Georgia. One year later, I was promoted to the position of Management Services Director, which is my current position. As Division Director, I am responsible for the following departments: Human Resources, Procurement, Information Technology, GIS, and Risk Management. My goal is to be a city or county administrator within the next 5 years.

What is the most exciting and/or interesting aspect of your current job?

> The most exciting aspect of my current job is that no day is ever the same. My office is located in the same suite as the County Commissioners and the County Administrator. In addition to the everyday operations of my internal service departments, the Administrator and Commissioners have been great in allowing me to participate in other projects that will give me the experience to become an administrator. 

Do you feel your MPA/MPP is helping you to “make a difference?” How?

> Yes. The heavy emphasis on organizational development and management practices has helped me be an efficient manager with a knack for “re-organizing” inefficient organizations.

What advice, if any, would you give to an undergraduate thinking about going for an MPA/MPP?

> My advice would be to obtain a job or internship in government as soon as you enter the program. The on-the-job training is priceless. I feel that I was better prepared than those who began an internship toward the end of graduate school.