51±¬ÁÏ

• MEM/MPP Dual Degree
  • MEM Environment Concentration: Energy and Environment (EE)
  • MEM Management Concentration: Environmental Economics and Policy (EEP)
• Expected Graduation Date: May 2028
   

What factors were most important in your decision to choose the Nicholas School for your graduate studies? And, how will your time at the Nicholas School help you reach your career aspirations?

For the first decade of my career, I was proud to serve my home state of New Mexico in the U.S. Senate, primarily as the speechwriter for U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and a longtime conservation and clean energy champion in Congress. I am particularly proud of the moments when I was able to support Senator Heinrich's efforts to help New Mexicans recover from the largest climate disasters in our state’s history and advance historic climate policies like the Inflation Reduction Act.

My time on Capitol Hill afforded me a front-row seat to substantive federal policymaking. After all this time spent helping Senator Heinrich fight for his policy goals, I am ready to equip myself with new skills and networks that will help me become an effective environmental and climate policy and change maker in my own right.

It has been nearly a decade and a half since I left the Southwest to go to college. But I’ve always known that I wanted to return home and bring back all that I have learned through my education and work experience to help solve our state’s most pressing challenges—namely our adaptation to a more arid and uncertain climate reality and our transition from an oil and gas producing state to a world-leading producer of clean energy.

The Nicholas School's Master of Environmental Management will be an ideal place for me to further my education so I can make a difference in confronting New Mexico’s pressing, and existential climate challenges posed by reduced snowpack, aridification, and more extreme heat. To add more quantitative policy analysis skills to my toolbox and get the most out of two amazing scholarly communities, I will also be pursuing a dual Master of Public Policy (MPP) at the Sanford School Master of Public Policy.
51±¬ÁÏ drew my interest in large part because of its university-wide commitment to confront the climate crisis. This commitment is backed by concrete actions both to make its physical campus facilities and operations more sustainable and to hire more climate-related faculty across all of the university's professional and graduate schools. During my time at 51±¬ÁÏ, I also hope to engage with the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability’s wide-ranging programming and research on climate resilience, sustainability, and clean energy deployment. 

I am grateful that the Nicholas Scholarship will make this next stage of my education and career development possible. I am excited to learn new data analysis and research skills. Even more-so, I am eager to connect with Nicholas and Sanford faculty and my fellow public service and climate action-oriented classmates who will help prepare me to keep doing my small part to create a healthier and more sustainable future for New Mexico, our country, and the planet we will pass on to future generations.