NIAAA Fellow, Heller School for Social Policy at Brandeis University. “Set Goals. Have a Mentor. Be Proactive. Take Care of Yourself.”
For Lauren, growing up in a family where “community service was not only valued, but practiced,” has been “a driving force” in her career path. She chose the Suffolk MPA program because of its “excellent reputation in teaching public management courses,” and after taking a few classes prior to applying, she felt the classes were “well structured, comprehensive, and challenging, yet practical and fun.”
Lauren appreciated that the professors have “a wide-range of experiences in government, administration, and program management, which are invaluable to the learning environment.” She explains that “having a diverse faculty with a wide-range of experience definitely enhanced my experience in the program. Learning the principles of administrative law from a lawyer and former Senator, the various aspects of state and local government from a former Commissioner or Secretary, and nonprofit management from current and former practitioners in the field provides students with a comprehensive foundation for learning the various aspects of public administration.”
The most important aspect of Suffolk’s MPA program, both during Lauren’s time in the program and afterwards, has been the people involved, both students and faculty. She notes that “the faculty is approachable, supportive, and resourceful, [which] has been most valuable to me, as I have remained in touch with faculty who I consider to be great mentors as well as former colleagues.”
Lauren is currently a NIAAA fellow and doctoral student at The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Her research efforts have focused on alcohol and drug use as it relates to criminal activity, and she is currently working on a federal grant evaluating drug crime in urban cities. Lauren has worked with several community organizations across the state in both direct care and management capacities and currently as a researcher/evaluator.
She regularly puts theories learned in the classroom at Suffolk into practice in these various roles. As an example of this, Lauren recalls the Organizational Change class she took with Professor Burke. She explains, “we learned how to evaluate the different aspects of an organization using a specific methodological approach. I have recently used this methodology to develop a survey measuring organizational effectiveness.”
Lauren has also worked as the Assistant Director at the Center for Public Management at Suffolk University, where she worked on a number of locally and state funded projects. Lauren’s long term goals include focusing her “research efforts on the intersection of drug use and crime and its implications for policies targeting at-risk youth” and working in an academic environment as a researcher and professor.