MPA ESP Graduates Working as Environmental Professionals

From addressing issues of environmental practices at multinational corporations to optimizing energy consumption in developing countries, our graduates' skills are being utilized on multiple fronts across many sectors. Students from our program prepare to work in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. The seventh cohort of the program graduated on May 18^th and students from the class are going on to pursue a variety of careers in those fields.

The program, sponsored jointly by the School of International and Public Affairs and The Earth Institute, Columbia University, incorporates more science into the curriculum than any other MPA degree presently offered. The aim of the program is not to train students to become scientists, but rather to give them the ability to manage the work of scientists and appreciate the nature of scientific enquiry in order to transform the implications of those findings into effective policy. Program Director Steve Cohen elaborates, "We are about training policy analysts and managers for public service careers aimed at protecting this planet's environment."

Beginning this summer, recent graduate Daniel Teitelbaum starts his two-year rotation at the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. as part of the Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) program. Teitelbaum is serving as a Program/Policy Analyst for the Toxics Release Inventory Program.  His work concentrates on the process of drafting new regulations for the mining sector to regulate the disclosure of toxic emissions and increasing public access to toxic release data.  Teitelbaum will rotate into other positions as part of the PMF program after working at EPA.  This year, three MPA ESP students became PMF finalists out of 26 who were nominated.  The PMF program assigns fellows into various divisions, bureaus, office, agencies, or programs in the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.  Through these rotations, fellows gain invaluable management experience and have the opportunity to learn about how programs function in various occupational fields.  The only PMF finalist from the MPA ESP program to serve as a fellow, Teitelbaum expressed enthusiasm prior to graduating about his move to D.C. and was excited about beginning his role as a government employee.  Teitelbaum noted that he felt prepared from courses such as Public Management for the ".interesting challenges that government employees face and the significant role they can play in affecting change."

Alexander Hofmann, another graduate from the class of 2009, is currently participating in the research group of Vijay Modi, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University.  This summer, Modi's research group will focus on electrical infrastructure optimization in developing countries.  The group hopes to develop a platform so that all major stakeholders involved in infrastructure can visualize the trade-off of different electrification approaches. This will allow the international community to fund electrification as a program instead of a series of individual projects.

Starting this August, graduate Siobhan Burns will begin her PhD at the University of Hawai'i, Manoa in the Tropical Medicine program. Through this program, she is interested in "studying how public health, marine studies and tropical medicine can be integrated as disciplines to improve human and environmental health."

Another graduate, Nathan Chan, is currently working as an Operations Analyst for the International Operations Group at PepsiCo, which has had sustainability metrics for a few years now.  This summer, Chan is researching how to improve the entire process from survey design and collection of data to analysis and reporting.  He is focusing on two major projects: solid waste and climate change.  Of the experience thus far, Chan says: "it has been a great learning experience to work in a large organization like PepsiCo.  I have been able to see many of our MPA ESP classroom principles in action, like 'what gets measured gets done' and the importance of maintaining informal networks." In the fall, Chan will begin a PhD program in either industrial ecology or environmental economics at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Despite the difficult economic times, our graduates are finding meaningful jobs across the public, private, and not-for profit sectors. Graduate Maha Bahamdoun will take her skills back to the United Nations Development Programme, where she plans to continue her previous work as a country advisor in the Regional Bureau for Africa. Several of our graduates will also contribute to the ever growing sector of environmental planning.  Graduate Emmanuelle Humblet will be managing the opening of a new office in New York for VHB, Inc., an environmental services and planning firm currently based in Boston. On the west coast, graduate Fletcher Beaudoin will be working as an Energy Planner at P+OSI in the EcoDistrict Development Division in Portland, Oregon.

Past graduates of the MPA ESP program continue to apply their skills in a wide range of nonprofit, government, and private fields. Organizations like the National Resource Defense Council, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, City of New York Office of Energy Conservation, United Nations Development Programme, PricewaterhouseCoopers, NASA, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), U.S. EPA, EcoSecurities, the World Bank, AIG Environmental, Booz Allen Hamilton, Malcolm Pirnie, Carbon Fund, the Bronx River Alliance, and The Earth Institute, Columbia University benefit from our outstanding graduates.