Archive for category: Public Policy

A sixth-generation Altadena resident presents a community recovery roadmap after the fires Sam James and the Altadena Recovery Team meet survivors’ needs and push for policy-informed advocacy

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by Peaches Chung

For Samantha “Sam” James, fire recovery and equitable rebuilding isn’t just a policy debate; it’s the reality of the community she and her family have called home for six generations.

The Eaton Fire destroyed homes across her entire extended family, including part of her own childhood home. James, a first-year master’s candidate in public policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, channeled her grief into action, transforming her family’s loss into a blueprint for community-driven advocacy.

It started with one simple text message to a group chat.

“I said I was going to Costco to buy hygiene supplies and asked if anyone wanted to help distribute them,” she said. That small idea turned into a full-scale supply distribution event on her cousin’s front lawn. This sparked a group effort that laid the foundation for the Altadena Recovery Team, which the founders describe as a collective of four Black women who were born and raised in the Altadena and Pasadena area, and now work to restore the spirit of their community.

Savannah Bradley, Sam James, Makai Ward and Allison Moore group photo against a white wall

Courtesy of Sam James
Clockwise, from top left: ART Chief Operations Officer Savannah Bradley, CEO Sam James, Chief Wellness Officer Makai Ward and Chief Impact Officer Allison Moore.

“We were devastated and feeling helpless,” she said. “Being able to have a place to channel that energy that was productive, and help channel that rage, it was truly healing.”

James co-founded ART, which centers the financial, physical and mental well-being of fire survivors through distribution drives, healing spaces and on-the-ground support. As ART’s CEO, she drives grant and fundraising strategies and ensures the organization’s programs are trauma-informed and community led. Policy conversations with partners at the state level — on issues ranging from rebuilding and long-term displacement support to mental health access — are grounded in her own experience as a community member impacted by the Eaton Fire. Her commitment makes one thing clear: When communities drive their own recovery, healing is possible.

After graduating from UCLA in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in political science, James came back in 2025 to UCLA’s MPP program with a clear purpose. After completing the highly competitive California Senate Fellowship, where she worked in state Sen. Josh Becker’s office on criminal justice reform, James went on to serve as a community engagement manager for Rising Communities, a nonprofit that works to eliminate disparities in health and social welfare in South Los Angeles. There, she trained the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on inclusive, trauma-informed community engagement practices and worked on reform initiatives grounded in equity and justice.

“Everything I had learned was on the job,” she said. “I wanted the research background, the theoretical understanding that the MPP offered. Being back on campus has been incredible. I graduated during the pandemic, so returning now and sharing space with my cohort has been deeply meaningful.”

At UCLA, James is also a graduate student researcher with the Black Policy Project in the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. Her research focuses on whether landlords are following the law and giving formerly incarcerated tenants a fair and lawful screening process. She also serves as the first-year representative for the Public Policy Leadership Association, strengthening student advocacy and community within the program.

She had no idea that a bill she helped draft in Becker’s office would one day directly affect her own family. James helped advance SB 1008, the Keep Families Connected Act, which made phone calls free for incarcerated people and their families. At the time, California’s prison telecom industry was worth $1.4 billion, and more than one in three families were being pushed into debt just to stay connected with incarcerated loved ones.

Years later, now with a family member experiencing incarceration, her own family is benefiting from the policy she helped pass. Seeing that impact up close reinforced her belief in community-centered policy and fueled her decision to pursue her master’s at the Luskin School.

“It was incredible to have that full-circle moment,” she says. “It showed me what’s possible when we push against the systems that keep people down in the incarceration space. It confirmed that criminal justice policy is where I want to be. After Luskin, I want to keep driving that change forward, especially as California continues to lead the way.”

James’ story recently reached a broader audience through TEDxAltadena, where she delivered a message about the unprecedented tragedies that have shaped Gen Z, and the powerful way her generation has transformed that collective rage into action.

“We’ve experienced tragedy after tragedy — 9/11, mass shootings, climate disasters, the pandemic, a mental-health crisis,” she said. “But we’re channeling that frustration into resilience and action.”

Her talk also spotlighted the origins of the Altadena Recovery Team, founded by James, Savannah Bradley, Allison Moore and Makai Ward. Together, they coordinated donations, distributed supplies, started yoga and meditation programs and pushed policy reforms, including support for mortgage relief legislation that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in September. They also raised nearly $400,000 through crowdfunding and grants. James framed ART as both a recovery model and a preview of what future climate disasters will demand: localized leadership, shared power, culturally competent support and policy-informed advocacy that ensures longtime residents aren’t pushed out of the neighborhoods they helped build.

“What we know is that climate disasters are only going to intensify,” she said. “We want ART to become a resource for other communities — offering mentorship, seed funding and a roadmap so they can lead their own recovery.”

James’ advice for anyone feeling overwhelmed by the state of the world mirrors the ethos she lives by today.

“Breathe. Take space for yourself. You can only show up for others if you’re showing up for yourself,” she said. “Then get involved. Being on the ground with my community has been profoundly healing. Being in community rarely makes things worse — it almost always makes things better.”

Rooted in her love and care for her community, she is turning her rage, as she puts it, “straight into power.” And she’s just getting started.

Measuring the Impact of the Community Schools Model

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A Chalkbeat article on a Chicago Public Schools initiative to give high-poverty schools about $500,000 annually for wraparound support cited UCLA Luskin’s Isaac Opper, who has studied the effectiveness of community schools models elsewhere.

The Sustainable Community Schools program supports partnerships with nonprofits to transform some of the city’s most disinvested campuses into service-rich neighborhood hubs.

A Chalkbeat analysis, however, suggests that the investments have not yet led to widespread improvement in how likely students are to attend school regularly, graduate from high school, or pass key reading and math tests. Chicago school officials say the model needs more time to show results; it plans to triple the number of campuses in the program by 2027.

Research has shown that well-implemented programs can yield measurable student gains, said Opper, an assistant professor of public policy who helped evaluate New York City’s community schools program. Over several years, it produced attendance gains, graduation rate increases, and modest but notable test score improvements, he said.

In Chicago, said Opper, “If you are seeing no difference, one story is that Sustainable Community Schools isn’t working. Another is that it is working, but so are other things the district is doing.”

Golden Bachelder and Prokriti Monolina: Fellows on the First Budget and Finance Advisory Committee

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by Jiah Lee

The L.A. City Council’s Budget and Finance Advisory Committee met for the first time this November with the goal of tackling structural financial issues and shifting towards more long-term budget planning by introducing outside expertise. The creation of this committee was proposed by Los Angeles City Council member Katy Yaroslavsky, who now serves as its chair.

Two UCLA graduate students, Golden Bachelder and Prokriti Monolina, are currently serving as fellows on this committee. Bachelder is a second-year Master of Public Policy (MPP) student and Monolina is a second-year Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) student at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Bachelder and Monolina are both fellows in the Office of Councilwoman Yaroslavsky. 

“It is an honor being able to help with the Budget and Finance Advisory Committee,” said Bachelder. “As one of the graduate student fellows, I am able to work with inspiring Los Angeles leaders and public servants in the effort to put Los Angeles in the best possible fiscal footing. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be able to help a cause that could benefit the city and its people for years to come.”

Monolina also shared her experiences with the committee. “As a UCLA Luskin Leadership Fellow, I am committed to supporting the Budget and Finance Advisory Committee (BFAC) in reimagining Los Angeles’s resources through rigorous policy analysis and targeted research in municipal finance and resource allocation. This work also involves in-depth research in real estate development, land use strategy, and the development of sound financial policy frameworks. It’s an incredible opportunity to work alongside experts and learn from them. One day, I hope to bring these insights to Bangladesh, my motherland,” she said.

Outside of the committee, Bachelder and Monolina continue to make a positive impact on policy reform and the future of their communities. Bachelder served as a fellow in the Office of California Governor Gavin Newsom where he worked to promote shared goals through research on initiatives, and Monolina is a waste researcher who founded an app called Eco360 that promotes green consumerism.

How DemocraShe Builds Civic Engagement for All How UCLA Luskin alumna Sarah Jakle combines trauma-informed practice, public policy, and mentorship to prepare young women for civic leadership.

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Sarah Jakle M.P.P. ’04 (she/her) has always believed that leadership must support the whole human being. Her commitment to women’s civic empowerment began long before she founded her organization DemocraShe, but the seeds were planted in the classrooms and mentorship circles she experienced as a graduate student at UCLA.

Jakle studied literature as an undergraduate before beginning her early career working with unhoused communities and individuals living with mental illness. This included an internship at U.S. VETS in Long Beach, where she worked directly with veterans experiencing homelessness, trauma and complex behavioral health needs. The work highlighted the barriers that individuals face when navigating unstable housing, mental health challenges and limited resources.

“I was working with unhoused veterans who had survived extraordinary adversity,” Jakle said. “Trauma was everywhere. It became clear that understanding trauma was essential to understanding how to really help people.”

Although she was making an impact one person at a time, Jakle saw how structural policies often determined whether meaningful change was possible. That realization brought her to graduate school, where she sought to understand the systems that shape people’s lives.

She earned a master’s in public policy from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and later completed a master’s in social work at USC with a concentration in military social work. The dual training created what she describes as a “Venn diagram” of her interests. The public policy curriculum equipped her with analytical and quantitative tools, while her social work training gave her trauma-informed frameworks for understanding the emotional experiences of people navigating public systems.

At UCLA, Jakle took several courses that fundamentally shifted her perspective, including the statistics and evaluation courses that she initially found intimidating as a non-STEM student.

“I was a literature major, so taking calculus-based economics and statistics was a shock,” she said. “But those classes transformed me. They taught me that you cannot assume you have impact. You have to measure it.”

Another defining experience came from her mentorship with former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, one of her professors at UCLA Luskin. Dukakis invited her to his home, where she met his wife, Kitty Dukakis. Learning about Kitty’s treatment in the press during the 1988 presidential election had a lasting influence on Jakle.

“Kitty was brilliant and compassionate, but she had been deeply mistreated during the campaign,” Jakle said. “It was the first time I truly understood that the emotional experience of being in politics could be as consequential as any policy outcome.”

The experience opened Jakle’s eyes to how women experience public scrutiny, and how often their emotional well-being is overlooked in discussions about civic leadership. This realization stayed with her as she continued her work after graduate school.

From Theory to Practice

Jakle’s graduate training and early career experiences directly shaped the creation of DemocraShe, a nonpartisan leadership program for young women. The organization serves a diverse group of students, with the majority identifying as girls of color and many as first-generation Americans.

DemocraShe teaches students foundational civic knowledge, leadership skills and what Jakle calls “amygdala skills,” which are basic neuroscience tools that help young women regulate fear, discomfort and internalized barriers when stepping into unfamiliar or high-pressure spaces.

“Women are socialized to be perfect, and stepping out of your comfort zone can trigger the amygdala,” Jakle said. “That discomfort often shows up as hesitation or self-doubt, which people call imposter syndrome. We teach girls how to regulate those feelings so they can pursue opportunities that match their ambition.”

Sarah Jakle Speaking on a microphone at a political rally with a flyer that reads "politicians are no longer allowed to choose their voters"

Grounding and resourcing are two of the trauma-informed techniques that students learn. Grounding involves returning to the present moment through sensory awareness. Resourcing involves cultivating an inner supportive voice to counteract internalized criticism. Both practices are drawn from trauma research and help to calm the amygdala, allowing the prefrontal cortex to re-engage.

“We teach girls that the brain is constantly scanning for threat and safety,” she said. “If they can regulate the amygdala, they can make choices from a place of confidence and clarity.”

DemocraShe integrates rigorous evaluation into its programming, a discipline Jakle attributes to her training at UCLA Luskin. Students complete anonymous pre-program and post-program surveys so the team can track changes over time. For the full 2025 cohort, 37% of students reported understanding how to move forward as active participants in American democracy before the 10-week flagship program. After completing the program, that figure rose to 99%.

Another key metric asks whether DemocraShe helped students do something they were previously afraid to try; 92% say yes. Examples range from delivering public remarks in religious spaces, to running for school leadership positions, to asserting themselves in instances of workplace conflict.

“These findings tell us that our work is shifting both leadership skills and resilience skills,” Jakle said. “We are helping young women navigate adversity while stepping into the roles they deserve.”

Mentorship and Civic Leadership

Although UCLA shaped her academic foundation, one of Jakle’s most influential mentors came through her political organizing work. She credits Ada Briceño, labor leader and former chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County, as someone who demonstrated what courageous leadership looks like.

“Watching Ada, I saw firsthand how women, especially women of color, experience systemic pushback in civic spaces,” Jakle said. “It made me passionate not only about strengthening our democracy but also about protecting the emotional lives of the women who lead.”

Jakle has also worked as the Get Out the Vote director for the California National Organization for Women. During that time, she heard many women receive vague warnings that political life would be difficult, without being offered any tangible tools to manage the challenges ahead.

“For me, that felt like a missed opportunity,” she said. “We have decades of research on how people can self-regulate during stress. We should not send women into public life without these tools.”

Navigating the Present and Looking Ahead

Jakle believes that civic engagement extends far beyond voting. She encourages students from all academic backgrounds to understand how policy affects their educational pathways, professional fields and daily lives. She also believes that higher education institutions can play a significant role in preparing the next generation of civic leaders.

One of her priorities is advocating for paid opportunities for students to participate in policy work. She notes that many early political pipeline programs are unpaid, which often prevents students who need to work from participating.

“There are meetings happening right now about the future of the UC system,” she said. “Students should be in those rooms, and they should be paid for their time. Otherwise, only students with financial flexibility will get access to those spaces.”

As part of that commitment, DemocraShe pays all participants who take part in its 10-week program or its one-day summer intensives held live on Zoom.

Jakle also recognizes that many young people feel overwhelmed by political uncertainty and social change. She emphasizes the importance of joy as a protective factor for the brain. She teaches a practice called “savoring,” in which individuals spend a few moments each morning noticing two joyful or beautiful things to counter the brain’s negativity bias.

“When there is so much suffering, it can feel like experiencing joy is a betrayal,” she said. “But joy protects the brain. It helps people stay engaged instead of burning out.”

Her advice for those seeking to remain informed and active is simple. She encourages people to find community, participate in local action, and take small, consistent steps that contribute to positive change. She also recommends looking at diverse sources of information and listening to students and young organizers who are at the center of campus activism.

“Democracy is woven through everyday life,” she said. “Small actions matter. Community matters. And every person has a role in shaping the world around them.”

Jakle’s journey from social work to public policy and civic empowerment illustrates how trauma-informed leadership can strengthen democracy. Through DemocraShe, she continues to uplift young women and equip them with tools that support both their public leadership and their inner resilience.

This article was originally published by UCLA Alumni. Read the full article here.

Yaroslavsky on Rob Reiner’s Legacy of Progressive Advocacy

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Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin, spoke to the Hollywood Reporter about Rob Reiner’s legacy as a progressive policy advocate.

The slain actor, director and producer was also a Democratic power player, championing causes including same-sex marriage, environmental conservation, and early childhood education.

Yaroslavsky recalled Reiner’s energetic support of Proposition 10, a 1998 California ballot measure that levied a tax on tobacco products to pay for a variety of early childhood programs across the state, many of which are still in existence.

“Nobody had ever proposed something of this magnitude before,” said Yaroslavsky, who for decades served as an elected official in Los Angeles. “That was his baby, and it’s made a huge difference that’s helped hundreds of thousands of kids.”

Why Small Businesses Fail: Key Findings from the Wall Street Journal

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The Wall Street Journal breaks down the biggest reasons small businesses fail, drawing on national data, expert insights, and real-world examples of entrepreneurs navigating early-stage risk.

They turned to UCLA Luskin’s Robert Fairlie for his expertise, citing his finding that “only half of new businesses survive two years, and only a third last five years.” The piece underscores how early-stage entrepreneurs often underestimate cash-flow needs and overestimate initial demand, leaving them vulnerable within those early years of growth.

It also points to the advantages held by those with prior business exposure — whether through family enterprises or past industry experience — which can translate into stronger planning, better decision-making, and higher sales. “The children of family-business owners were more successful and less likely to exit,” with family work experience linked to roughly 40% higher sales, says Fairlie.

Fairlie also guides the discussion on financing gaps, especially for minority-owned businesses, explaining that they’re more likely to exit due to limited capital access. His data shapes its core conclusions about why startups struggle and what factors boost survival.

Counteracting the Market Dominance That Keeps Health Care So Expensive Research by UCLA Luskin's Wesley Yin is one of several projects made possible by nearly $55 million in awards to the school

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Americans are facing rising health expenses year after year, with many compelled to skip or delay the care their families need. To investigate the root causes of this barrier to affordability, UCLA Luskin’s Wesley Yin has embarked on a pair of ambitious studies of market power in the health care industry — and how it might be checked.

Yin’s research, funded by the nonprofit Arnold Ventures, will seek to answer several questions:

How has consolidation in the industry — mergers among hospitals, physician practices, insurers, and pharmaceutical managers, for example —  eroded competition?

How has the market dominance of hospitals and other medical care providers suppressed wages in the health sector — an industry that accounts for 18% of the U.S. economy?

Can “public option” health insurance plans, with cost structures set by government statute, exert enough pressure to counteract the price-negotiating power of dominant providers, leading to lower health care bills?

Headshot of man in suit, white shirt, tie

Professor Yin will tap into powerful research tools to explore market forces in the health sector.

“There are a lot of markets in the U.S. economy that are no longer competitive. This can generate some benefits at times. But the broad concern is that this can create a lot of distortions in the markets, which ultimately bear down on consumers and on workers through higher prices, fewer options, and lower wages,” said Yin, a UCLA Luskin professor of public policy with a joint appointment at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

“Health care is an industry where this concentration has been rising for decades.”

Yin’s two-year study was made possible by a $466,000 grant from Arnold Ventures, which funds research into policy solutions that address inequity and injustice. It is one of several grants and contracts that have brought nearly $55 million to the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs from April to October 2025.

By far the largest component of that funding — more than $47 million — is from federal, state, and county agencies that contract with UCLA Luskin Social Welfare to administer social services and training programs.

Philanthropic groups, nonprofits, community organizations, and public agencies have also stepped up to support UCLA Luskin research spanning the school’s broad portfolio: fair housing, water quality, voting rights, K-12 education, parking reform, and more.

The common thread is a desire to find policy solutions to the most pressing issues of our time, with donors turning to UCLA for its extensive faculty expertise and deep resources as a top-tier research university.

Yin’s work draws on his experience as a scholar, economist and public servant. Motivated by a desire to understand the causes and consequences of excessive market power, he recently co-authored a high-impact study of the crippling impact of medical debt in America.

In the Biden Administration, Yin served as Chief Economist of the White House Office of Management and Budget, where he helped advance policies surrounding affordability and competition. In the Obama Administration a decade earlier, he helped implement the Affordable Care Act during his service in the Department of Treasury and Council of Economic Advisors.

For his current project on the health care industry’s market power, Yin and his research team will tap into powerful resources, including the Federal Statistical Research Data Center, housed in the UCLA Luskin Public Affairs building. Access is highly selective, requiring security clearances and confidentiality agreements — but the massive trove of data opens up vast opportunities for novel research.

Yin has secured permission to analyze anonymized U.S. Census Bureau and Internal Revenue Service files to assess the impact of consolidation in the health care industry on workers’ earnings and job stability — including the potential for lopsided bargaining power and wage inequality.

For a second investigation funded by the grant, Yin and his team will review records from Washington state’s public option health care program, the first in the nation. They hope to identify how such public-private partnerships in procurement can best be structured to act as a brake on soaring health care costs.

“In theory, a public option, if it’s structured well, could try to achieve the prices of what a competitive market would have achieved,” said Yin. “The big question is how to design a public option program with teeth that also supports a healthy hospital market. This project essentially is to understand this.”

Tribal Casinos Lift Living Standards, Study Finds

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Tribal casino operations boost wages for American Indians and reduce unemployment for nearby people of all races employed in casino-related industries. In addition, per-capita payments of casino profits may have contributed to improved living standards, on average, for tribal citizens living on reservations.

These are the findings of a recent working paper co-authored by UCLA Luskin’s Randall Akee, a professor of public policy and American Indian studies, and summarized in a U.S. Census Bureau report.

Using census data to evaluate ZIP-code-level economic impacts, the researchers showed that the expansion of tribal casinos that began in the 1990s has helped improve conditions faster for American Indians relative to the U.S. population as a whole.

American Indians living on reservations experienced a roughly 11% decrease in childhood poverty, an increase of about 7% in labor force participation by American Indian women, and a 4% reduction in overall unemployment, Akee and his colleagues found.

Yet there is still progress to be made: The American Indian poverty rate was 19.6% in 2024, greater than that year’s national average of 12.1%, according to Census Bureau data.

A Tradition of Family Sacrifices in the Black Community

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A house purchased on behalf of a grandniece in need of stability is the focus of a federal indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has pleaded not guilty. The case has resonated among many Black women in America who have stepped up to help loved ones experiencing hardship.

Research shows that many upwardly mobile Black women and men feel a steep cultural obligation to provide assistance to extended relatives, even at their own expense.

UCLA Luskin’s Jasmine D. Hill told the New York Times that the practice can be especially connected to one’s sense of identity in Black communities.

Hill’s research found that even those “on the verge of economic ruin themselves” sometimes provide significant financial support to immediate and extended relatives, pulling from emergency savings and emptying retirement accounts.

“Black families, and Black women particularly, have had to figure out ways to essentially be an unhonored social safety net in the United States,” said Hill, an assistant professor of public policy and sociology.

Q&A: Advancing Equity for Immigrant Communities with MPP Student Jenny Jihyun Kim A David Bohnett Fellow reflects on turning policy training into meaningful action.

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You were recently selected as a David Bohnett Fellow with the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. What excites you most about this opportunity, and how do you see it advancing your career goals?

I am deeply honored to be selected as a David Bohnett Fellow with the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, especially at a time when Los Angeles, as a city, is at the forefront of protecting and uplifting immigrant communities. This opportunity excites me because it allows me to see firsthand how local government can translate values into action. For example, working on Executive Directive 12, which is designed to strengthen protections and access to city services for immigrant families, has allowed me to witness how policy can directly improve and make a difference in people’s lives. Throughout my time at the UCLA Luskin MPP Program, I often reflected on what it means to create equitable, evidence-based policy. At the mayor’s office of immigrant affairs, I see how this applies in real life. I observed how data, advocacy, and collaboration converge to shape city policy and address issues faced by the community. This experience as a David Bohnett fellow directly advances my long-term career goal of becoming a leader who bridges communities and policymakers. With my background in grassroots organizing and now my exposure to policymaking in local government, I’m developing the skills and the perspective needed to be an effective advocate for immigrant rights and equity in public policy.

“I aspire to be an advocate within the spaces of policy and ensure that community members are not just represented in policy discussions, but they are brought in as active partners in shaping policy.”

As part of your fellowship, you’re working inside a government office where policy decisions are made and implemented. What have you learned so far about how public policy actually takes shape in practice, and how has that influenced your perspective as a future policymaker?

Working inside the Mayor’s Office has shown me that policy-making and policy implementation are a collaborative effort. It has shown me that it’s not just about writing good policy, but also that building relationships and trust is crucial. In being part of the team leading the Executive Directive 12, I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside policy makers, a team of lawyers, community leaders, city department leaders, and other various stakeholders, each bringing a unique perspective and ideas to the table. Through this process, I am seeing how much coordination and communication it takes to ensure that a policy is implemented equitably with the right intentions. One key lesson I have observed and learned is that equitable policy “making” requires ongoing conversation with those most impacted. The power to make meaningful change lies in the community, and it is when you work with directly impacted people that policy becomes more grounded and sustainable. This experience has influenced my perspective as a future policymaker by reinforcing that creating meaningful change requires centering the voices of those with lived experiences. I’ve also learned that implementation and accountability are just as critical as policy design itself, also recognizing that implementation requires continuous communication and collaboration.

The Luskin School emphasizes hands-on learning and connecting policy theory with real-world practice. Can you share an example of how your coursework or training has directly informed your fieldwork or fellowship projects?

My coursework at UCLA Luskin has taught me to critically analyze social issues through both quantitative and qualitative lenses. I learned that it is not only about understanding what the problem is, but also why it exists, how proposed policies might create intended and unintended consequences, how to provide recommendations to relevant stakeholders, how to evaluate recommendations, and how to work collaboratively on implementing them. For example, I have observed in meetings with policymakers and community leaders how qualitative and quantitative data are constantly discussed. I learned that narratives of impacted community members alongside quantitative data reflecting the scope of their experiences play a significant role in informing and shaping policy decisions. Additionally, in my Methods of Policy Analysis class, I learned about the various evaluation criteria, including effectiveness, equity, efficiency, feasibility, and more. When meeting with all City Departments’ Immigrant Affairs Liaison to support the implementation of Executive Directive 12, I was able to bring this analytical lens into practice. I considered how each department’s role and its programs impact the directive’s effectiveness and equity in serving immigrant communities. Remembering the different frameworks I learned at Luskin, I was able to contribute to discussions about the accessibility of city resources in multiple languages and ensuring that City Departments account for diverse factors that could influence implementation in their respective fields.

Looking ahead, how do you envision leveraging your Luskin education and professional experiences to drive change for immigrant and underserved communities—both locally and globally?

Through my time at Luskin and my professional experiences, I have witnessed how evidence-based policy, cross-sector collaboration, and community engagement can come together to create meaningful change for the immigrant and underserved communities. At NAKASEC, I learned about grassroots organizing. At the UCLA Dream Resource Center and Labor Center, I learned about research justice. At Luskin, I am learning about policy and policy analysis. At the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, I am learning about putting my MPP knowledge into practice. While I recognize I have much to learn, I aspire to be an advocate within the spaces of policy and ensure that community members are not just represented in policy discussions, but they are brought in as active partners in shaping policy.

Five or ten years from now, where do you hope to be, and what kind of impact do you ultimately want to make through your career in public policy?

In five to ten years, I hope to be working in a leadership role within a local or regional government abroad or with an international organization, where I can continue to design, research, recommend, implement, and evaluate policies that advance equity and protect the rights of immigrant and underserved communities. My goal is to be a public policy expert who brings both professional expertise and lived experience as an immigrant to the table, ensuring that community voices are included in decision-making and that human rights remain at the center of public policy. Ultimately, I hope to conduct my own research analyzing the evolving patterns of human migration and to develop actionable policy recommendations for countries to promote safe, dignified, and equitable migration journeys. I aspire to contribute to advancing social systems where migrants have access to essential resources and services, and where they are empowered to make informed decisions for themselves and their families.