Melissa Boteach

Why did you choose the Trachtenberg School?

The Trachtenberg School allowed me to pursue the quantitative skills I wanted to develop with exposure to professors, peers, and a learning community that wanted to apply those skills to the issues I cared most deeply about. I was a part-time student, and Trachtenberg not only provided the flexibility I needed, but also a supportive environment to bring insights from my work into the classroom, and learnings from the classroom to my work. 

Looking back, what are the most valuable skills, tools, or aha-moments you gained at Trachtenberg that you still rely on today?

The Trachtenberg School gave me the skills and confidence to be an educated consumer of policy research across relevant fields, and ultimately to ask the right questions and synthesize information to oversee policy development. The specific coursework I took on both budget and public finance as well as social policy exposed me to research and leaders that I still call upon in my career.