In the past couple years, I have taught and co-taught both core and electives classes for the MPA curriculum. For core courses, I’ve co-taught 2nd year core Analytic Techniques for Public Services, a research methods class focusing on the tools and skills to prepare students to become effective consumers and producers of research as future policy makers and public administrators. In this intensive class, students practiced researching public administrative topics using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Students critically examined the fundamentals of methodology such as what counts as research, what is the relationship between the researchers and the researched, and the practical implications of different research approaches in public administrative practice. Through their group research projects, students tried to apply an equity lens to their research while wrestling with their own identity as researchers and public administrators. I also co-taught Capstone, the last core course for students where they wrap up their MPA journey through a summative project. Students created practical, meaningful projects through a wide array of formats.  

With an interest in exploring social policy on pressing issues related to inequality, I’ve also taught several electives that address social issues relevant to our times. In Health Policy in Social Context, we examined public health through the lens of the social determinants of health. The Covid-19 pandemic provided a(n) (unfortunately) perfect opportunity to look at how systemic issues play out in the unequal distributions of health outcomes in an unprecedented public health crisis. In the two poverty focused electives, Poverty: Who, Why, How and Houselessness: Faces, Numbers and Solutions, we took a dive into the complex symptoms and causes of poverty and social welfare policies aimed to provide solutions for poverty and houselessness. In both of these courses, I guided students to look at the historical as well as the present, the values that underlie the policy as well as the specifics of policy, and centered lived experiences as much as scholarly research and administrative practices. The students, many of whom have had personal experiences with poverty, and work in the field of social services, resonated with the learning materials, and enriched each other’s learning through their insights and perspectives. Our guest speakers, often from a background of personal hardships themselves, inspired us through their compassionate and effective work helping people in poverty. As depressing as these topics are, the sense of community built through our deep discussion and shared passion to make change gave all of us hope.