Learn More About Our 2026 Graduation Speakers

By Guita Taheri

Though she has always been interested in the field of public service, Hannah was initially planning on pursuing a degree in social work. Her path shifted towards the world of public policy thanks to an unexpected source of inspiration: the mathematics department at the University of Washington.

“I was taking a lot of classes on optimization, and I was really interested in optimizing bus routes,” she noted. “I realized that was the most interesting part of any course I’ve ever taken.” After sharing her passion for transit service optimization during an interview with a social worker, she was encouraged to explore systems-level change through public policy. This catalyzed her decision to double major in public policy and mathematics, which was an easy transition: “Public policy really applies to everything!”

Hannah will be joining the Evans School’s Class of 2026 on June 10, where she’ll represent her fellow classmates as our first undergraduate commencement speaker. “I am very proud of our class. I’ve seen everyone push themselves to complete a double major, and it’s been a great experience to get to know everybody,” she expressed.

After graduation, Hannah will be pursuing a Master of Public Administration at the Evans School in the fall. “I’m really interested in transportation policy and making transportation more accessible,” she shared. “I’m also really interested in environmental policy and I’m excited to explore what both of those could look like together.” Ultimately, it’s the community she found at Evans that has shaped her post-graduation plans. Not just her fellow classmates, but her professors Grant Blume, Scott Allard, Crystal Hall, and Rachel Fyall. “They care, they set us up with resources, and they all want us to have the same opportunities. That’s been really special.”

Riley’s knowledge of the power of public administration has guided her academic and professional career journey throughout adulthood. Born and raised in Boise, Idaho, she was recruited to the University of Wyoming on a policy debate scholarship, serving as the student body president before graduating with a bachelor’s in Political Science and Gender and Women’s Studies. Following graduation, she moved to Bend, Oregon and worked as a legal assistant at two separate firms: one in a family law firm and another in social security law, where she helped clients apply for disability services.

As Riley describes, she has had a “hodge-podge” of experiences. “I never knew what exactly I wanted to do, but I did know I wanted to serve my community in some way,” she described. “I liked learning about public systems and, once I learned more, I felt like I could find a way to change them to better serve people.” Equipped with an idea of what her ideal career could be, she applied to the Evans School MPA program in hopes of seeing what options were out there for her. “I’m really happy that I did,” she shared. “I’ve made some of my best friends who share the same values as me. I feel more confident in my knowledge of policy and processes than I ever have.”

More importantly, Riley found her career path. “I’m not really sure how to explain it, but once I took financial management and public budgeting courses, something clicked.” She discovered a love for working with numbers, helping organizations align their budget with their mission, and how to effectively fund public services. “It feels like the perfect mesh of my public speaking skills and desire for process-oriented work.”

The opportunities she discovered outside of the Evans curriculum also shaped her path. Whether it was a transportation electrification internship through Seattle City Light, or being elected the VP of Finance for UW’s Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS), her time at Evans has helped her feel a sense of belonging. “I know this is the career field for me,” she stated.

After graduation, Riley plans to move back to Central Oregon in pursuit of a public sector budget analyst position. More than anything, Riley shared how excited she is to go back home. “I love paddleboarding, hiking, walking along the river, reading in the sun…hobbies that have been really difficult to maintain during graduate school when there is always something to do. I’m eager to go back to my slow life with the confidence I’ve gotten from the Evans School.”

Eric grew up in a small farming town in Omak, Washington, where strength in community was the way of life. “It wouldn’t be uncommon that if a farmer was ill or couldn’t do something, everybody would rally around to go help that family out,” he remembers. “My entire life has really been focused on the communities we live in and family, whatever shape that takes for different people…very early in my life, I knew that I was a person who wanted to give to others.”

His desire to give back eventually brought him to the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle, where he worked as a registered nurse for an inner-city hospital. He began his career in health and emergency services during the shadow of the HIV/AIDS crisis; as someone who came from a tight-knit community, he “was deeply impacted by the number of people that came into the E.R. who had been abandoned by their families or didn’t have community.” This catalyzed his decision to begin volunteering to care for patients with AIDS and to provide in-home IV therapy for AIDS and cancer patients. Eric would also go on to pursue a career as a paramedic firefighter and dedicated first-responder.

As he began to (in his own words) approach retirement, Eric was curious as to how he could continue to educate other caretakers in a way that instills the strength he found in community and diversity through his professional career. This is what brought him to the Evans School’s Executive Master of Public Administration (EMPA) program. “I chose Evans specifically because of the program’s equity lens,” he shared. “My prior experience has led me to feel that if I’m going to pursue a graduate degree, if I’m going to continue to be a changemaker, an equity framework and diverse network of people from different backgrounds is important.”

Following graduation, Eric plans to continue working at the School of Medicine, in the Department of Emergency Medicine, supporting King County’s Emergency Medical Services (KCEMS) system, and the region. He hopes to further explore ways in which our EMS systems can more equitably address the needs of our communities. Though he may pursue a doctoral degree in nursing further down the line, Eric’s focus is to continue to have as much of an impact as he can in his current role.

Ellie is an applied policy researcher and economist with expertise in understanding how policies and programs can increase economic mobility. Before pursuing her Ph.D. at the Evans School, she spent more than a decade at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, where she learned how to measure and track labor market conditions; an important foundation for understanding economic mobility and opportunity. During her time there, she also helped develop tools that assist individuals and families in navigating the complex interactions between earnings and public benefits, helping them to find their pathway to economic mobility.

She decided to pursue a Ph.D. to continue developing as a researcher and gain a deeper understanding of what shapes people’s opportunities and life outcomes. What she didn’t anticipate was just how much the training would change the way she thinks. “Evans gave me a deeper appreciation for how norms, values, incentives, and institutions influence both individual decisions and broader social outcomes,” she explained. “The Evans School brings together ideas from different disciplines and research methods to answer complex policy questions, which I have embraced wholeheartedly.”

Her dissertation focused on policies designed to expand educational opportunity and economic mobility. More specifically, she examined why eligible families are not claiming supportive funds available through California’s public programs, how students’ perceptions of college affordability influence educational decisions, and whether California’s statewide FAFSA encouragement policy increased college enrollment.

She also pursued applied policy research outside of her dissertation. “I developed a framework for evaluating changes to social safety net programs, which was later recognized with a best paper award,” she noted. “I also helped evaluate conflict resolution services for landlords and tenants, evaluated the public benefits tool I helped develop while at the Atlanta Fed, and investigated whether access to pre-kindergarten influences mothers’ labor force participation.”

Perhaps most importantly, Ellie’s Ph.D. taught her not only how to answer research questions, but also how to determine which questions matter. “I have always wanted to understand how things work, and Evans gave me the tools to channel that curiosity into meaningful research…I now have the training needed to tackle almost any research question I can imagine. That ability feels a bit like a superpower.”

Though Ellie is set to speak at the Evans School’s June commencement ceremony, she completed her Ph.D. during the fall quarter. She is now working as a Senior Economist with the California Employment Development Department’s Labor Market Information Division, where she conducts labor market research to help state leaders better understand workforce trends, economic conditions, and emerging challenges. She is excited to continue using research and evidence to inform policy decisions and improve opportunities for Californians.