Adrienne Augustus spent her childhood stepping up. As a peer leader, a Girl Scout, and class president, she was always looking for ways to serve her community. Years later, she’s still wholly dedicated to that mission.
After graduating with a BA in Journalism from the University of Maryland, she began a reporting career in Greenville, North Carolina. “I was hoping to help my community by uncovering the ills of our world and eliciting positive change, one news story at a time,” she says.
Seven years and one Emmy nomination for investigative reporting later, she shifted to the demanding world of corporate communications.
Community service never took a backseat. She served on the board of directors for a local Girl Scouts affiliate. She supported the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. She volunteered with local nonprofit organizations by lending her extensive knowledge of communications, public relations, and fundraising efforts. The more she contributed, the more she reconsidered her priorities—and her career goals.
“After building a professional career stressing about corporate bottom lines, I decided if I was going to be stressed out about work, the work needed to matter,” she says.
In 2015, she left the for-profit sector and dove face-first into finding the right master’s program—one that would allow her to elevate her professional know-how and pursue a new career direction.
“After building a professional career stressing about corporate bottom lines, I decided if I was going to be stressed out about work, the work needed to matter.”
Augustus started exploring Master of Public Administration (MPA) programs. An MPA would help her understand the complex, evolving relationships between governments and communities. It would also give her the versatile skill set she’d need to take charge in a nonprofit environment. The more she thought about it, the more “it just made sense.”
“When I read about the MPA program at UNC, I realized I had found the beginning of my new career,” she says. “The opportunity to take electives that focused on nonprofit management was the icing on the cake.”
Augustus started the program with a renewed sense of purpose and an ambitious goal: to found her own nonprofit organization.
“I initially expected to use my degree to build a career as a nonprofit management consultant, mental health advocate, and public speaker,” she says. “But then an incredible UNC MPA administrator offered me the opportunity to lay the groundwork for my nonprofit a year before graduation. The time I spent launching the organization would fulfill a graduation requirement, but we never expected my efforts to move so quickly from concept to reality.”
Guided by that momentum and support, Augustus founded A Beautiful Mind Foundation (ABMF). ABMF funds organizations that address the cultural differences impacting communities of color and the unique challenges those communities face in receiving mental health support. Its mission is to “positively impact lives by investing in culturally competent mental health services that educate, enlighten, and empower our diverse community.”
“We never expected my efforts to move so quickly from concept to reality.”
Augustus says her own experiences, volunteerism, and mental health struggles have “very clearly” informed the organization’s development.
“As an African American woman, I have faced challenges finding doctors and support groups that provided the kind of treatment I needed—not just as an individual with bipolar disorder, but as a whole person who faces adversity unique to Black Americans,” she says. “Members of the Latinx, Asian American, and Native American communities also face unique challenges when addressing mental illness that are shaped by their culture, native language, and generations of well-established norms and generations-old traumas.”
Identifying and funding organizations that acknowledge and respect those cultural differences is critical. That’s where ABMF comes in.
“Despite the coronavirus pandemic, we brought in nearly $26,000 in just 10 months of fundraising—and nearly all of it came from individual donors,” she says. In July, the board of directors announced the foundation’s first 20 grant recipients, representing 10 states and the District of Columbia, with awards totaling $22,315.
“UNC Tar Heel footprints are all over the creation and ongoing development of this organization,” says Augustus. “Two board members are UNC MPA alum—Molly Murray and Debbie Adams. One I met in class and the other I met at a virtual MPA happy hour. Three other volunteers I met through my online MPA courses. Two out of the three of us who led our inaugural grant-making cycle are recent UNC MPA graduates.”
Augustus says countless others, including MPA staff and professors, have made personal financial contributions, donated through family funds, offered priceless advice, and offered other forms of support. Through it all, she’s had multiple chances to reflect on her education—and the true meaning of service.
“UNC Tar Heel footprints are all over the creation and ongoing development of this organization.”
“Being an effective part of the public sector requires so much more than learning how to do a job. Earning an MPA at UNC teaches you how to be a leader in the public sector—how to make a meaningful, positive impact for your community, whether it be at the local, state, or national level. If you truly want to be a public servant and make a positive change in our community, an MPA will give you the know-how to lead not just effectively, but ethically and equitably too.”
The last three years of Augustus’ life have unfolded in ways she never could have expected. “Busy” doesn’t begin to cover it: She’s earned an MPA. She’s founded a nonprofit organization. On top of it all, she’s starting a new job as the media relations and mental health program manager for her local police department.
“If you truly want to be a public servant and make a positive change, an MPA will give you the know-how to lead not just effectively, but ethically and equitably too.”
“Less than one month ago, that position didn’t exist,” she says. “A key component of my role as a civilian at the department will be to support goals set by the department’s leadership to create and launch community-centered emergency mental health support services for the city.”
As for Augustus? She’s already thinking about what comes next.
“A friend recently asked me when I was going to run for office,” she says. “The way my life has been going, I won’t be surprised if that role is somewhere down the road. I didn’t set out to work for the government, but the MPA from UNC certainly gave me the knowledge and desire to lead in the nonprofit sector, in any capacity, at a high level.”
Though Lorrie Fair Allen is now earning her Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree online through MPA@UNC, she has been a part of the Carolina family for more than 20 years.
“I get to be a double Tar Heel!” said Allen, who also earned her bachelor’s degree at UNC. “I think anyone who comes here knows there is something pretty special about this place.”
During that time, Allen’s deep commitment to advancing the public good—both in the United States and around the world—has made her a formidable leader in academic, athletic, and professional arenas.
During her time as an undergraduate at UNC, Allen quickly distinguished herself as a gifted athlete. In addition to helping the UNC women’s soccer team win three NCAA championships, she was a member of the 1999 FIFA World Cup championship team and took home a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
At the same time, Allen nurtured her academic interests, particularly those related to public service and advocacy. The UNC women’s soccer program, she says, laid the groundwork for her development as a leader. She credits coaches Anson Dorrance and Bill Palladino with designing a program that positions students for continued success.
“One of their goals is to build leaders who are service-oriented,” Allen said in 2019. “Anson’s biggest hope is that that extends beyond the soccer field.”
Since earning her bachelor’s degree, Allen has parlayed her athletic and academic talents into professional opportunities that serve populations and diplomatic missions around the world.
Today, Allen oversees grant initiatives as program director for the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP). In her role, she identifies community-based health organizations—specifically, those that work with young people at risk of contracting HIV—and connects them with CTAOP funding, helps to build their organizational capacity, and connects them to other resources and networks in order to build a stronger civil society in the response to HIV/AIDS among youth.
Allen has even found a way to merge her professional endeavors with her longstanding love of soccer. As a sports envoy for the U.S. Department of State, she leads soccer clinics for young people around the world in order to support the U.S. diplomatic missions abroad. These clinics offer more than just athletic training—they engage players and their coaches in a dialogue about the importance of gender equity, diversity, respect, and leadership.
A true Tar Heel, Allen never stops developing her leadership abilities. Driven by her dedication to public service, she returned to her Carolina roots in 2016 and enrolled in MPA@UNC, the online MPA program from the UNC School of Government.
Allen, who expects to graduate by the end of this year, recently explained why the degree was such an important step for her.
“It’s definitely helping me be better in my current role, whether it’s program-related, policy, or advocacy. But beyond that, this MPA is valuable in that it really has helped prepare me for anything that comes my way in this constantly changing space in the public sector.”
Jennifer Barnhill is using her experiences with the online Master of Public Administration at UNC to create a new pathway for military families with special education needs—and leaders at all levels are taking notice.
After 15 years of relocations, deployments, and dealing with military bureaucracy, Barnhill took solace and found great camaraderie in her military spouse support group but couldn’t shake the idea that it wasn’t checking all the boxes.
“The purpose of the organization was to support us while our spouses were deployed or working,” Barnhill said. “But I realized this structure built around us no longer supported the needs of our military families. We could fix a problem at the local level, but the systemic issues still existed.”
Barnhill had the passion and the motivation but knew she needed further education to tackle such a looming challenge.
She explained that while there were programs and groups in place to support military families, they were based on an outdated definition of who a military spouse is, often thinking of them as stay-at-home wives, not the career-driven men and women they are.
“There are a lot of volunteer expectations that fall on military spouses,” she said. “This structure sets us up for failure. I began asking how a nonprofit organization could address these challenges.”
At first, Barnhill was unsure if her military lifestyle could sustain a master’s program—during her husband’s time in the military, the family had moved to Japan not once but twice—so she pursued a certificate program as a testing ground.
Upon completing the certificate, Barnhill decided to pursue an MPA to improve systems that were not serving military families to the fullest. She chose UNC’s online MPA program because of its high rankings as well as the ability to be completed from anywhere in the world.
Barnhill was impressed that the online MPA admissions team took the time to understand her skills and background. This is crucial for military spouses, whose résumés may look different than other applicants.
“Military spouses are extremely capable, but our lifestyle makes it difficult to seize career opportunities,” she said. “We have a unique ability to pivot quickly based on our circumstances, and this skillset is transferable to professional life.”
As she started the program in January 2020, Barnhill had a discussion with the executive director of Partners in PROMISE (Protecting the Rights of Military Children in Special Education), and something clicked.
“I could tell she was working hard to help military-dependent kids in the special education system,” Barnhill said, “but the organization had no structure, even though they had a lot of traction in Capitol Hill.”
Barnhill offered to help the newly formed organization. Using the skills she learned in the classroom, —specifically in the Nonprofit Management course—she helped refine their 501c3 application and business plan. The real work, however, came as Barnhill began the Public Administration Analysis and Evaluation II course. Her research topic aligned with her Partners in PROMISE work, asking why military-affiliated special education students do or do not pursue legal solutions in disputes with services or possible violations.
“We wanted to know whether the transient military lifestyle was affecting their ability to access the legal system,” Barnhill said.
She frequently met with her PUBA 720 professor, Dr. Chris Cody, to share her survey instrument and seek guidance on collecting data that would later be shared with military leadership.
“Dr. Cody always made himself available to answer questions in class or during office hours,” she said. “His assistance helped me feel confident and trust our findings—especially since the data we collected would be presented in front of a congressional caucus.”
In fact, many of the recommendations in Partners in PROMISE’s survey became law, and the White House cited information from the survey websiteExternal link:open_in_new in their own reportsExternal link:open_in_new.
“Dr. Cody is still helping me, reviewing this year’s findingsExternal link:open_in_new, and giving me advice as I seek to continue my research after graduation,” Barnhill said.
Today, Barnhill serves as the chief operating officer for Partners in PROMISE, and her dedication to helping military families remains. However, her passion has expanded to include mental health and special education services within the military, in the hope of removing stigmas and elevating voices to fix systemic problems.
“My MPA@UNC(link sends e-mail) experience taught me that if something works well in local government, it may translate to the state or federal level—this is also true with the military’s ability to implement new programs and change regulations,” Barnhill said. “If we can use that ability to remove hurdles for military families, we could also do that within the larger population.”
Barnhill added that she is grateful for the level of attention and understanding UNC offered every step of the way.
“They truly understood the challenges of military life,” she said. “Military families make many sacrifices, and we’re starting to bridge that divide.”
In addition to her work for Partners in PROMISE, Barnhill has published articles about military spouse life, is writing a book about military spouse volunteerism, and hosts a podcast, Disrupting Storytelling with Military Changemakers, seeking to combat military stigmas.
“As a Carolina MPA, you have a broad support network that wants you to succeed, to find a good job, to experience a meaningful career, and to make a real difference in our communities and in the world. When I look back at critical points in my career, in nearly every instance an MPA connection faculty, staff, or fellow alumni made the difference.”
In his commencement address to the 2013 Carolina MPA graduating class, Chris Morrill credited MPA faculty and staff members as well as fellow alumni with helping him to advance his career at each juncture. He also credits his MPA education with providing him the essential skills needed for his work with local governments, both in the United States and abroad. “The challenges that local governments face are universal,” Morrill says. “We must figure out how best to provide services, equitably distribute those services, do it efficiently, and involve others in making decisions. My MPA education provided me with the relevant skills I have applied in all of my work.”
In 2017, Chris Morrill became executive director for the Government Finance Officers Association located in Chicago, Illinois.
“The Carolina MPA program emphasized skills that are critical to my daily work as I manage complex, team-focused projects and a budget of close to $70 million.”
Jennifer Christian worked on housing projects in central Appalachia during high school, each summer through college, and for five years after graduating.
Jennifer’s desire to be most effective and have the greatest impact in a career that followed her passion to help others led her to pursue and earn her MPA.
Today, Jennifer helps create strong and sustainable governing boards nationwide that work to improve the lives of low-income families.