Hopkins-Honed Applied Economics Skills Lead to Pentagon Post

Published February 20, 2026 | Request Information

When Souleymane Toure enrolled in the Johns Hopkins University MS in Applied Economics program, he was driven by a long-standing fascination with data, policy, and empirical analysis – and a desire to apply those skills where decisions carry national consequences.

Today, Toure is the Director of Infrastructure Appropriations for the Department of the Air Force at the Pentagon, managing a budget exceeding $18 billion over multiple years. He said the analytical and policy evaluation skills he uses daily trace directly back to his time at Hopkins.

“In my work, I apply the analytical and policy analysis skill sets my Johns Hopkins’ instructors instilled in me when I was an Applied Economics student,” Toure said. “As a senior leader, I’m grateful for the rigor and academic excellence Johns Hopkins epitomizes, which have greatly impacted how I work and lead daily.”

Toure completed the program in 2019 as an in-person student, attending evening classes while working full-time. He said the MS in Applied Economics program was a natural continuation of his professional interests.

“I have always been drawn to empirical analyses, from my time at Morgan Stanley analyzing stocks and strategic investments to learning the intricacies of macroeconomics,” he said. “A degree in Applied Economics ensured I strengthened my analytical capabilities, meshed with policy evaluations.”

For Toure, the value of the program was its immediate applicability.

“It was one of the best times both in terms of academic rigor and being able to directly apply what I was learning to real-life scenarios,” he said. “Whether it’s the Autoregressive Moving Average model or the Ricardian Equivalence, I was able to directly apply everything I was learning to my work as a budget officer and therefore be a better steward of taxpayers’ funds.”

That hands-on rigor shaped how he approaches leadership and decision-making today and allowed him to see the importance of personally detaching from the data to form sound recommendations.

“Above all, I learned to be more pragmatic and listen to the data and make deductions solely on an empirical basis, and make recommendations accordingly, regardless of my opinions.”

Although he serves as a civilian, Toure said working at the Pentagon is deeply connected to a sense of service.

“As a civilian working in the Pentagon, I get to serve alongside the best professionals our country has to offer,” he said. “Doing whatever I can do, no matter how small, that could ensure funding is allocated at the right time and right place, is the least I can do to show citizens we care about them and have their backs.”

Reflecting on his Hopkins’ experience, Toure said the program prepared him to succeed at the highest levels of decision-making.

“The top-tier faculty at Johns Hopkins will instill in you what you need to be successful anywhere,” he said. “Hopkins equipped me to go on to Harvard and work at the highest levels of decision-making.”

For those considering a master’s degree but unsure they can fit it into their lives, Toure’s advice is direct.

“It’s all about sacrifice,” he said. “You will have to sacrifice for about a year or two, to go through grueling work and studies, but at the end, when you reflect back, you’ll be happy you did it.”