Presidential Management Fellow/International Health Officer
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Office of Global Health Affairs, Washington, DC

Hilary Mathews had never considered federal employment as a work option, but after two years at the Wilson School, she embraced the possibility that the government could be an interesting place to apply what she had learned.

“When I began looking at graduate programs, I knew I wanted the skills to operate comfortably in both the policy and programmatic arenas, and to understand the critical links between the two. Neither a technical degree nor a degree focused exclusively on theory would have provided me with the multidisciplinary perspective of the M.P.A. For me, WWS was the only institution that was intellectually rigorous, had a supportive, non-competitive environment, as well as had a particularly strong program in health policy. The dedication to public service and the genuine enthusiasm of virtually everyone affiliated with the School creates a tremendously tight-knit community. I knew that this environment—intense, challenging, and very supportive—would be the perfect place for me to push my limits. I also appreciated the opportunity to nurture my particular interests in international health and development while learning a generalist's set of policy tools.

"WWS offers an impressive selection of courses taught by practitioner-scholars who are uniquely poised to address the intersections of theory and practice. In Keith Hansen's M.P.A./J.D. '87 excellent course on AIDS, so much of what we had learned about development theory was devastatingly fleshed out in the realities of the AIDS epidemic. This grounded us, as well as inspired us to apply our policy skills to problem solve."