Highlight on Alumni

We maintain a LinkedIn Group called
Johns Hopkins University Applied Economics Alumni & Faculty.
All alumni and faculty are invited to join.

Michelle A. Wyant, 2009, served as a law clerk to the Honorable John Philip Miller and began as a General Attorney in the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition in the Fall of 2008. At the University of Georgia School of Law, she acquired the legal training required to practice antitrust law, and entered the Applied Economics Program to acquire the economic training to do so effectively. In addition to the program's practical applicability, the economic theory gained will provide her with an enriched perspective from which to analyze legal issues at work and in her scholarship. She currently has articles published in the Richmond Journal of Global Law and Business and the San Diego International Law Journal.

Molly Garber, 2008, was promoted to supervisory economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics a few months after completing our program. Now that she both makes policy recommendations for her office and assigns projects to staff, she is particularly grateful for her JHU education: "The quantitative classes have given me the background to evaluate the quality of our research and its potential impact on our products if carried out as policy. In addition, the lessons learned in policy classes have been invaluable in the decisions I make at work, both large and small: the tradeoff between efficiency and fairness can be found almost anywhere."

Julie Kalishman, 2008, was a researcher at the Committee for Economic Development. Our program gave her a chance to hone her quantitative skills, especially in the area of econometrics: "Now I can critically evaluate other economists' research, as well as run my own econometrics experiments. The practical classes helped me obtain a deeper understanding of how public policy helps or hinders economic success.” After graduation, Julie was awarded the Presidential Management Fellowship. She is serving her fellowship as a Program Examiner in the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget.

Jeremy Larrieu, 2008, writes: "As an economist in oil & gas consulting, the Applied Economics program was instrumental in providing me with usable tools that were directly applicable to the projects I was working on. The program’s perfect balance between academia and real-life applications additionally gave me the confidence to apply to PhD programs, and the faculty was tremendously helpful throughout the process. I have also learned a great deal from the diverse group of students enrolled in the program, and never knew economics could lead to so many different career paths. I will be pursuing the PhD in Economics at the George Washington University from Fall, 2008".

Anthony Murray, 2008, was Captain in the U.S. Army, and Assistant Professor of Military Science at Georgetown University. He appreciated our rigorous program because it fills the gap between undergraduate economics and PhD level economics: "The program takes the fundamentals of economics and shows mathematically how this stuff works. I enjoyed the lectures and class discussions, as many of the faculty advise on economic policy and are full of current issues and problems from their 'day jobs'. This gave me a more tangible idea of why economic policy making is so difficult and important." Anthony will be pursuing the Ph.D. in Economics at Virginia Tech from Fall, 2008.

Aditi Sen, 2008, was on the staff of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, where she worked on international trade and health, until 2009. From September, she will pursue the PhD in Health Economics at the Wharton School. She pursued the MA in Applied Economics while working at the U.S. Agency for International Development, and subsequently at the Center forGlobal Development. "Economics is at the heart of the most challenging and interesting aspects of the field of international health and development," she writes. "I was looking for a rigorous, but manageable, program that would give me a solid foundation in economic theory and applications and I found it here. The insights and skills I acquired have allowed me to take on greater research responsibilities at work and have given me a platform from which to consider further graduate work."

Barclay Gibbs, 2007, writes: "The Applied Economics Program is a nice complement to an engineering or technical background. After completion of the core curriculum, the program provides the opportunity to enjoy courses such as Public Economics, Industrial Economics, and Trade Theory, which have provided me a public policy, strategic, and international context for better understanding the field in which I work (energy). The program's econometrics classes are similar to data analysis courses encountered in engineering school, but applied to thought-provoking and relevant economic problems."

Ben Horne, 2007, was an analyst at the World Bank. He very much enjoyed the challenging intellectual material in class that balanced relatively repetitive assignments in the workplace, and wrote: "The best element of the curriculum is the emphasis on empirical data and econometrics. I had a lot of undergraduate math, but the theory never found its way into application. In almost every course we ran regressions using real world data, learning valuable practical skills. Students are given a lot of liberty to explore the areas in which they have interest. I found the faculty to be very personable and much better teachers on average than those that I had at the undergraduate level." Ben is now pursuing the PhD in Economics at the Universityof California, San Diego.

Adam Ackerman, 2006, writes: "The program kept me surprisingly up to date with domestic and international issues. In addition, as a military officer and pilot, the different real world experiences of the instructors significantly broadened and strengthened my own professional development. Furthermore, the degree has opened the possibility of a dream assignment, teaching at the US Air Force Academy."

Michael Berry, 2006, is with the Bureau of Economic Analysis. He writes: "The Applied Economics program taught me the economic theory underpinning many of the policy decisions made in Washington. The courses were often taught by insiders personally involved in the analyses who could thus illuminate the political economy behind these decisions. The Hopkins M.A. opened the door to a wide variety of public and private job opportunities, and gave me the skills I needed to successfully compete for promotions."

Giuseppe Cipollone, 2006, is a Senior Advisor at the IMF. He was attracted to the program essentially for its well-targeted range of courses, with the concentration on econometric studies. Further: "Applications to current economic topics, such as global imbalances, financial globalization and trade liberalization, are a key asset of the program. The significant presence of students with different backgrounds, and the truly enthusiastic faculty members make the overall environment challenging and stimulating. Close links with other Hopkins centers, particularly SAIS and the Carey Business school, expands significantly the range of the program."

Mark Hodgins, 2006, was an economist at the Bureau of Economic Analysis: “The Applied Economics program at Hopkins stands out because of its faculty and its focus. The faculty is comprised of PhD economists holding government, non-profit, and business positions, all at the top of their game. Moreover, every course I took focused on real-world economic issues and used empirical data. As a result, classes like Macroeconomic Forecasting greatly improved my quantitative and programming skills. The knowledge I gained culminated in my being hired as a SeniorConsultant for the Economic and Business Analysis team at Booz Allen Hamilton.”

Francis Martinez, 2006, writes: "The program was instrumental in my work as an Operations Research Analyst for NASA, where I develop statistical models. I routinely apply the tools gained through the program-industry-grade statistical software (SAS and STATA), design of statistical experiments, econometric analysis, and empirical research and report writing. The breadth and depth of the electives in the program allow one to explore the many fields within economics. Being centered in the nation's capital, the program is composed of faculty and students drawn from many government, non-profit, and private sector organizations, which provides excellent networking opportunities."

Ana Corrales, 2003, attended the program full time. She "loved her experience", and writes: "Thanks to the accessible, experienced faculty of real-world economists, my confidence grew with each course I completed. I returned to Miami, Florida to work as executive director of a bi-national Chamber of Commerce, and later as director of research for an economics consulting firm. Today [2007], I am tenure-track economics faculty at Miami Dade College, the largest community college in the U.S."

Julie Salsbery, 2002, is now Emerging Markets Analyst with T. Rowe Price. Her Applied Economics education remains invaluable. She writes [2007]: "Virtually all of the classes I took in the program can be directly applied to my role in figuring out how a country's fiscal and monetary policies will impact the country's debt and foreign exchange performance. Because most financial analysts have either a finance degree or an MBA, I am able to bring a different perspective to discussions that helps our firm perform for our clients in today's highly competitive financial environment."