Q: Looking back on who you were at the start of the program to who you are now, how have you changed?
A: I’ve become a more thoughtful and strategic, forward-thinking person. The MPA program helped me move outside of my linear thinking patterns and consider the systems that create embedded problems and approaches we can take to change systems at the source to lead to better outcomes.
Q: What is one class, one project, one faculty member, one experience, one discussion, or some other aspect of our program that had an impact on you and proved to be meaningful in your professional life?
A: My Applied Research Project experience was incredibly valuable. I researched work characteristics among hybrid and remote staff members at U.S. colleges and universities that promoted organizational commitment (ultimately, information sharing across distances and clear, equitable performance management). I was able to apply my findings directly to the development of an institution-wide flexible work program at my place of work. We will be tracking the results of our program over the next few years to see its effects on retention and recruitment. UNC gave me the guidance I needed to engage in this research and the language to bring my findings to HR and university leaders.
Q: A brief quote or piece of advice for those considering the UNC MPA or a career in public service?
A: Join the UNC MPA program! It will help you with any number of paths forward in public service or even to help you bring important public service values into other sectors. The MPA program teaches you about inter-sector relationships, systems, and encourages you to “ask the second question” to reach real solutions.
Q: What was the path you took to get to where you are now?
A: I started out pursuing a career in clinical social work. I studied social work in undergrad at the University of Georgia and worked in a program supporting grandparents who were raising their grandchildren in the rural counties surrounding Athens, GA, and got my first experiences in research looking at barriers to graduation for high schoolers in the area. I then moved to North Carolina where I received my MSW from the School of Social Work at UNC Chapel Hill. While at the School of Social Work, I worked as a graduate research assistant on the early stages of a study looking at substance use trajectories among biracial adolescents and adults. I supervised research assistants, helped lead area trainings, and contributed to a successful NIH grant application. I also served as a clinical social work intern on an assertive community treatment team in Chapel Hill. In this role I worked on a multidisciplinary team to provide in-home treatment and support groups to promote independent living in the community for persons with serious and persistent mental illness.
I left that experience with great respect for folks in direct practice social work, but pretty quickly realized that systems level change, program evaluation, and research best fit my skillset. I knew I still had a knowledge gap, as I wanted to continue to hone my research and management skills and better understand good government, That led me to pursue my MPA at UNC. Throughout the program, I worked for UNC MPA Alum Kristin Siebenaler who (at that time) was Deputy Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program’s National Program Office. She had experience in the federal government and was a big part of helping me see that as a career option. (I even stayed with her sister when I interviewed in DC.) Seeing and writing about the about the research done by the clinical scholars also helped drive my interest in health policy. I also continued to work on my research and communication skills throughout the MPA program, both through coursework, my professional work experience, and some short term work with School of Government professors.
I had never heard of the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), but luckily learned about it from Maureen Berner. I was able to pursue a position on GAO’s health care team right after I graduated, which was a great fit for my social work background, drive for public service, interest in research, and desire to make government work better and more efficiently for the people it serves. I have spent the past 9 years developing objective, nonpartisan, fact-based reports and congressional testimonies on a range of health care related topics. I also recently completed a two year detail supporting the head of the health care team, including managing our reporting to Congress about our spending on audits related to COVID-19, developing presentations about our pandemic work for auditors from other countries, and revamping our internal awards process.
Q: Have you pursued/attained any other degrees since your MPA?
A: No. As noted above, I attained my MSW prior to applying to the MPA program. The way we do our work at GAO means I get to deep dive into a different topic for a year or two at a time. It continually meets my passion for learning and keeps me from going back to school.
Q: Is the field you are working in now relevant to your MPA degree?
A: Definitely. I think the UNC MPA is well known for how It can prepare you for work in local government, but it applies to the federal government as well. My agency is full of public servants conducting program evaluations to make government better, which pull directly from the skillset that an MPA helps students develop.
Q: How did the MPA program specifically prepare you for future work experiences or inform what you do now?
A: I get to work as a generalist and lead evaluations on a variety of health care related federal programs and policies, ranging from how mental health parity laws have been enforced to how the VA ensures that its medical centers appropriately review a doctor’s care if quality or safety concerns arise. The MPA program prepared me for this role in a variety of ways, largely by providing foundational or fundamental knowledge of government budgeting, organizational leadership, and thinking more systematically about what makes good government and the importance of public service values. Understanding research methods and developing a full research project from design to report during the program helped me better understand research and project management than past positions I had, where I was only able to assist on smaller segments of a research project. The cohort model and the team-based projects really helped prepare me for the type of work I do where everything is team based and relationship building and trust are incredibly important for getting the information we need from the agencies we’re auditing. The ample opportunities to hone both written and oral communication skills were also incredibly important in helping prepare me to speak to or write for a variety of audiences.
Q: Have you been able to fulfill goals formulated while in the MPA program? If so, how?
A: I think I am still working on it! I had lofty goals of improving health policy and programs for the folks with mental illness that I used to work with and just generally making government programs work better. I got really lucky in finding a job and an agency that aligned with my goals and my values. I’m proud of the work I’ve done so far and some of the program and policy changes that have been made as a result, but there is still a long way to go.
Captain Julia Farinas has built a career around helping the underrepresented. After getting her bachelor’s in history at Loyola University in New Orleans and attending law school at Tulane University, Farinas discovered a passion for advocacy at the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights (LCCR), a nonprofit organization that provides holistic legal representation for children caught up in the justice system.
Three years of hard but rewarding work with LCCR convinced her that she wanted a career in public service. “A lot of lawyers go to work at big firms to make a lot of money. I knew that wasn’t my personality.”
After her formative nonprofit experience, Farinas went on active duty with the military, where she continued to advocate for the underserved, moving from base to base in a variety of positions, including two years as a legal representative for victims of sexual assault. She never forgot about her ultimate goal to return to her hometown of New Orleans and work in child advocacy for nonprofits.
“My work in New Orleans made me realize that you have the largest impact on the most people when you’re working in public service.”
“In the army you get a lot of experience and you see a lot of things, but the foundational nonprofit work that I had done in NOLA is something I’ve always wanted to go back to,” she says. “In a perfect world, I think a lot of nonprofits would be obsolete, because basic goods and services would be available to everyone regardless of grant funding.”
“My work in New Orleans made me realize that you have the largest impact on the most people when you’re working in public service.”
Farinas’s experience in the nonprofit world gave her a firm understanding of the internal workings of organizations, how they succeed, and how they interact with government agencies. “Understanding how the money works is really what made me want an MPA. A lot of the other logistics you can learn from on-the-ground training, but there is an aspect of budget, finance, and grant writing that you can’t learn as you go.”
Being a lawyer gave her experience in many areas but one: leadership. “A JD program, in a lot of ways, teaches you how to be a technician,” she says. “You know how to put together a case; you know how to analyze facts and the law. But that doesn’t relate to how to deal with people, how to manage people, how to supervise, how to budget, along with other supervisory tasks that are required of leaders. That’s what the MPA program has done for me, and it’s why I sought it out.”
Farinas firmly believes that an MPA is crucial for those with juris doctor degrees and big dreams. “There is no lawyer I know who says: ‘I just want to try cases and stay in the same place my whole career.’ Everyone wants an upward trajectory, and that’s what the MPA program is doing for me.”
“There is no lawyer I know who says: ‘I just want to try cases and stay in the same place my whole career.’ Everyone wants an upward trajectory, and that’s what the MPA program is doing for me.”
When Farinas decided to support her goal by pursuing a Master of Public Administration, UNC was already at the top of her list.
“Everyone at Fort Bragg spoke highly of the program because it’s focused on government service,” she says, citing the high number of UNC School of Government graduates at Fort Bragg as how she learned about the MPA program. “Many army leaders have also recommended the program to me.”
As an active duty lawyer, the flexibility of an online program was crucial for Farinas. It was also important to her to get a degree “from a reputable place, from a well-known recognizable institution. UNC’s program was far and away the best one that fit my criteria.”
“Everyone at Fort Bragg spoke highly of the program because it’s focused on government service. Many army leaders have also recommended the program to me.”
She says that the UNC online MPA program has already improved her skills. “I’m up for a promotion in the army this year from senior captain to major, so I’ll be in upper management. Being in the MPA program is a huge advantage for me and has given me the confidence to serve people well.”
At UNC, Farinas is learning exactly what she needs to know to synthesize her past work experiences and take her career to the next level. She takes classes on a schedule that works for her busy life. “My main goal in this program was not to just complete the program but to learn the information.”
As a full-time active duty working mother, Farinas advises students to manage their time. “I would tell anyone coming into the program to manage their expectations that there will be a time deficit,” she says. She praises the program’s synchronous classes, saying, “I would never do an online program that didn’t have synchronous work. Those classes are very useful.”
Farinas had a baby in April 2020, right in the middle of an intense time at work that has continued throughout the pandemic. “The Immediate Response Force was called up out of the 82nd Airborne Division in January 2020 to go to Iraq, and we had 72 hours to push out 3,700 soldiers.” The changes in her personal and work life also coincided with the beginning of the semester.
“It’s my experience that the faculty will bend over backward to help.”
“If I missed class, they were great about making sure I didn’t miss the material. The fact that the professors have a baseline understanding that I am a working parent has been the reason I have been able to continue with the program through COVID, with a new baby, and with work being insane. It’s my experience that the faculty will bend over backward to help,” Farinas says.