Robin Blatt-Eisengart works for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation as a Financial Analyst and Project Manager in the Office of Real Estate and Asset Development. In this role, he looks for opportunities to attract private capital to help pay for the public transportation infrastructure through the lease, license and sale of excess property and air rights.

Robin received his bachelors degree in Finance and International Business from Northeastern in 2004 and began his career in Boston’s financial services industry. After starting down a new career path as a financial analyst with WinnCompanies, a national developer and manager of affordable housing, he became interested in public policy. After taking several courses in City Planning at Boston University he opted to join the first class of students in the new MURP program. During the program Robin focused on land use and transportation issues, and with the help of his faculty advisor, Stephanie Pollack, landed an internship in the newly formed Office of Real Estate and Asset Development at MassDOT, leading to his appointment as a project manager and financial analyst there.

Kristen (Gilmore) Jefferies works for the Executive Office for Administration and Finance for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a Fiscal Policy Analyst. In this role, she contributes to the development of the Governor’s annual budget recommendation and works with various state agencies to ensure they are using their resources as efficiently as possible. Her policy interests include transportation, economic development, and health care.

Kristen received her bachelors degree in economics from Tufts University and began working as a Research Analyst at OptumInsight, conducting cost-effectiveness analyses for pharmaceutical drugs and products in development. After several years, she decided to pursue a more policy-oriented career. The MURP program provided the perfect forum in which to combine her economic analysis and research experience with her interest in public policy. During her time at Northeastern, Kristen used her coursework, professors, and internship in the Research Department at the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) to further develop her professional qualifications and to create a network in the policy field. A connection from the annual Career Forum event hosted by CitySMARTS (the MURP student group) resulted in Kristen securing her current job at the State House.

Maura Camosse works for the Women’s Institute for Housing and Economic Development as a Project Manager. She is focused on creating supportive affordable housing for low-income individuals and families throughout the State. Her policy interests include land use, housing, and economic development.

She began her career focused on conserving and increasing access to natural space. Her international land use studies included a year in South Africa, where she viewed first-hand the striking impact of government land policies on the quality of people’s lives. She went on to earn her Masters of Science in Land Resources from the University of Wisconsin. From there, Maura was able to apply her interests to the MURP program. Enrollment in the Master of Urban Policy program broadened her perspective and allowed her to better see the linkages in land use, housing, and community development. Her internship at the Women’s Institute, which was developed through experiences in classes as well as the guidance of the professors in the program, allowed her to build upon her previous experiences and create a career in affordable housing development.

Amanda Maher works for the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City as a Senior Analyst. She is creating a knowledge management system to help identify the best practices being used by cities nationwide in the inner city economic development arena. Amanda is also responsible for developing content for ICIC’s blog and other social media channels.

While in the program, Amanda was selected for the prestigious Rappaport Fellowship, a public policy fellowship sponsored by Harvard University’s Rappaport Institute. The 10 week summer fellowship is awarded annually to only 12 graduate students. As a Rappaport Fellow, Amanda worked for the Commonwealth’s Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development. She was responsible for reviewing various legislative proposals and conducting research. Amanda previously interned with the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s Economic Development Department, where she researched existing business incubators and co-working locations, establishing a comprehensive database.

Myles Maranca works in Brand Management and Public Relations at Media and Public Relations at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies. He had previously worked in Media and Public Relations at Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development (DND) and was also a Transportation Researcher for the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy. His policy interests consist of transit oriented development strategies, small business and residential development, community and equity issues.

After completion of his undergraduate degree, Myles lived in New York City where he spent a year working at The Bank of New York doing compliance and recordkeeping and six months at Natixis Real Estate Capital working on project development assessment, database management and client relations. When the sub-prime mortgage bubble burst he moved to Israel to study Jewish history, law and philosophy at Aish HaTorah, College of Jewish Studies. After returning to the United States, he moved back to New York City working at Church World Service as the Assistant Director of Education and Advocacy, before moving to Boston to pursue his Master’s degree. He is most interested in how the shape and the identity of communities can be affected by public and private institutions.

Meredith Miller is a Data Analyst at New Horizon Communications. She previously worked as the Business Administrative Coordinator for InMotion Robots, which provides advanced therapeutic robotic solutions to improve the rehabilitation of patients with stroke, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and neurological conditions. Meredith’s policy interests include urban business development, brownfield redevelopment, sustainability and renewable energy policy.

Her final graduate school project was a client-based Capstone in which she worked with both the City of Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development and Office of Business Development. The goal was to create a business district tool for the City to analyze its 19 “Main Street” districts. Her team generated a business district tool, developed a pilot for West Roxbury, and presented their findings to the City, as well as a strategic plan for future implementation of the business district tool. The information collected throughout this process required developing a large dataset as part of the business district inventory, analyzing NAICS codes, using ArcGIS for a spatial analysis, and conducting on the ground interviews with local business owners.

Amy Wyeth has worked as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Center for Health Information and Analysis, a Massachusetts state agency (formerly known as the Division of Health Care Finance and Policy), since 2012. At CHIA, Amy is responsible for data analysis, research and writing reports on the topics of controlling health care costs, state-mandated benefits, trends in health service usage, under-insurance and other topics. She previously worked at Foley & Lardner LLP, where she spent summer 2011 interviewing medical executives about the intersection of Accountable Care Organizations (a medical practice model) and oncology practices, for a journal article eventually published in the Journal of Oncology Practice.

Amy previously worked as a freelance journalist, with hundreds of articles published, mostly in the area of Boston-area real estate and finance; as a mortgage reporter for Boston financial newspaper Banker & Tradesman; and a general news reporter for newspapers in Peabody and Needham, Mass. Her policy interests include health reform, financial regulation, and economic security and equality.

Amy has always enjoyed public policy research, digging through mounds of data to analyze how laws and regulations affect communities.
Described by one of her bosses as “an amazingly meticulous and astute researcher,” Amy enrolled in the program to prepare for a career at the intersection of business and government. Amy graduated in May 2011 and was able to leverage both her policy degree and investigative journalism background in obtaining her positions since graduating. Amy felt that the best things about the MURP program were the practical nature of classwork and the personal interest that many professors took in students’ success. She especially appreciated classes in Health Policy and Leadership with Professor Michael Dukakis, as well as the fantastic opportunity afforded to her by Professor Stephanie Pollack to assist at a high-level transportation conference she was facilitating in Washington, D.C.