December 11, 2019

Namrata Kolla (MPA ’19) Leverages MPA to Drive Post-Graduation Impact

The Evans School catalyzes our students’ desire to do good in the world as they launch career paths grounded in making a real, life-changing impact. Hear from June 2019 MPA graduate Namrata Kolla as she describes how she – and students like her – applied her coursework as an intern and her degree as a graduate.

“[As an intern with the City of Seattle’s Innovation and Performance team], I got to combine data analysis, performance evaluation, and design-thinking in amazing ways to help develop solutions for housing assistance, fire departments’ performance evaluation, parking tickets, organic waste, and youth economic opportunity. I learned so much not only technically, but also in understanding what the barriers are to truly innovating in the government space, why those barriers exist, and how to get around them.”

“Since graduating, I’ve been able to build on those experiences as a user engagement and research analyst on the Skylight team at Vulcan, which provides technology to help combat illegal fishing and improve maritime security. Understanding the challenges of working in the public and nonprofit sector has helped me be better at onboarding users to our product, who are primarily public and nonprofit employees. Additionally, taking classes like Economics and Social Enterprises helps me better understand how a hybrid philanthropic organization like Vulcan can make an impact toward a highly fought-over common pool resource like the global oceans.” 

Our Career Development team worked closely with Nam during her time at the Evans School. Like her, our MPA students are uniquely talented, effective, and positioned to make a tangible difference in their careers. Visit Evans School Career Development for more information about how to hire from the Evan School.