October 9, 2026
PUBLIC SERVICE CAREER DAY
SCHEDULE OPENING AND KEYNOTE 11 A.M. / Robertson Hall, Bowl 16 OPENING REMARKS Dean Amaney Jamal KEYNOTE ADDRESS Julia Gutiérrez ’12
ALUMNI PANEL 11:25 A.M. / Robertson Hall, Bowl 16 MODERATOR Mihir Kshirsagar PANELISTS Julia Gutiérrez ’12 Ben Hawriluk MPA ’25 Hannah Kapoor ’23
LUNCH NOON / Robertson Hall, Bernstein Gallery
BREAKOUT SESSIONS* 1 P.M. / Robertson Hall 2 P.M. / Robertson Hall
NETWORKING RECEPTION 3:15 P.M. / Robertson Hall, Bernstein Gallery
*BREAKOUT SESSIONS LEADERSHIP MANAGEMENT AND FEDERAL HIRING Robertson Hall, Bowl 016 Rody Damis MPP ’22 Ann Futrell MPA ’09
NETWORKING: BUILDING PROFESSIONAL CONNECTIONS IN PUBLIC SERVICE Robertson Hall, 011 Andrés L. Parrado ’15 Greta Bedekovics MPP ’27 Kristen Lee MPP ’27
THINK TANK CASE STUDY WALKTHROUGH Robertson Hall, Room 015 Allie Matthias ’24 David S. Mitchell MPA ’12 Michael O’Hanlon Ph.D. ’91
CAREERS IN PUBLIC FINANCE AND DEVELOPMENT Robertson Hall, Bowl 002 Dianne Dobbeck MPA ’97 Charles Yi MPA ’03 Kathleen Song ’23 MPA ’27 Ryan Klaus MPA ’23
KEYNOTE SPEAKER JULIA GUTIÉRREZ ’12
Former Chief Digital Officer for the City of Boston Julia Gutiérrez is a technologist, policy practitioner, and public servant who has spent her career making government work better for the people it serves. Until August 2026, Julia was Chief Digital Officer for the City of Boston. She expanded Boston Digital Service’s portfolio to all technology for constituent-facing services, so the team could improve residents’ experience with the City more strategically. Under her leadership, the team modernized Boston 311’s technology and launched the largest overhaul of the City’s permitting ecosystem, covering service redesign as well as technology. Before that, Julia spent five years at Massachusetts Digital Service, where she led the launch of the Commonwealth’s Paid Family and Medical Leave program. She began her career at Fundación IDEA, a Mexican public policy firm, working on federal youth development policy and leading program design and evaluation workshops for state and local governments. After years of working with and within institutions, Julia now wants to support the individuals who drive change, helping them lead more authentic, supported lives. She is in the final year of the Institute of Core Energetics’ four-year Practitioner Certification Program, training in a trauma-informed, body-based modality, and is exploring coaching for people leading change in government and beyond. She also serves on the Institute’s Board as a student representative. Born and raised on the Mexico–US border in South Texas, Julia holds a B.A. from Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs (’12) and a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.
ALUMNI PANEL MODERATOR MIHIR KSHIRSAGAR
Clinical Lead, Center for Information Technology Policy; Lecturer in Public and International Affairs / Princeton University Mihir Kshirsagar serves as the Director of the Center for Information Technology Policy’s tech policy clinic. The clinic trains the next-generation of public-spirited technologists. His research focuses on how we can use technology ethically to promote accountability and empower users. Mihir also served in the New York Attorney General’s Bureau of Internet & Technology as the lead trial counsel in cutting edge matters concerning consumer protection law and technology and obtained one of the largest consumer payouts in the State’s history. Previously, he worked for Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP and Cahill Gordon Reindel LLP in New York City on a variety of antitrust, securities and commercial disputes involving emerging and traditional industries. Before law school, he was a policy analyst at the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C., educating policy makers about the civil liberties implications of new surveillance technologies. Kshirsagar attended Deep Springs College and received an A.B. from Harvard College in 2000 and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006.
SPEAKERS GRETA BEDEKOVICS MPP ’27 Former Director of Democracy Policy, Former Senate Policy Advisor / Center for American Progress, U.S. Senate
Greta is a Hungarian American citizen who has worked on democracy and voting rights issues for nearly a decade across the federal government and nonprofit sector. Most recently, she was the Director of Democracy Policy at the Center for American Progress (CAP), where she served as a leading national expert on elections, defending civil society, and democratic backsliding while also working to form a global progressive democracy coalition to dismantle the modern authoritarian playbook. Greta’s policy publications have been read by millions and her work and commentary has been featured in a wide range of media outlets including The Washington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Politico, MSNBC, The Associated Press, CBS, and NPR. Prior to joining CAP, Greta worked on Capitol Hill as a policy adviser on the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration for Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) where she worked extensively on democracy legislation – including serving as a lead author of the Freedom to Vote Act and the For the People Act. During her tenure, Greta helped lead the national effort to secure elections during the COVID-19 pandemic and worked on the certification of electoral votes on January 6, 2021, as well as subsequent investigations into the January 6 insurrection. She began her political career by working on campaigns, including California Governor Gavin Newsom’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign and a competitive 2018 Minnesota congressional campaign.
RODY DAMIS MPP ’22
Chief, Legislative Reference Division / White House Office of Management and Budget Rody Damis was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY and currently resides in Washington, D.C. Rody serves the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP) as a Senior Executive level Chief in the Office of Management and Budget’s Legislative Reference Division. Rody oversees a team of senior analysts with duties that include drafting memoranda to the President recommending approval or veto of bills that are ready for his action, and leading discussions and negotiations with Federal agencies and White House officials to develop positions for the Administration on all Federal legislation concerning: Health, Housing, Education, Labor, Veterans, and Social Security related laws. In addition to these duties, Rody is also a Federally certified executive and general life coach primarily coaching staff and Senior Executives within the Federal government. As a coach, Rody helps high achieving individuals overcome internal and external obstacles to effectively reach even higher levels of success. Outside of his Federal service, Rody has also served as an adjunct professor and visiting lecturer at Princeton University, American University, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where he has taught undergraduate and graduate level courses on domestic public policy. Prior to his service at the EOP and in academia, Rody was a Presidential Management Fellow initially appointed to the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs where he negotiated, executed, and awarded millions of dollars in Federal contracts to private businesses, many of which are historically underserved. Rody holds a Master of Public Policy from Princeton University, and a Juris Doctor and
a Master of Business Administration from the University at Buffalo.
DIANNE DOBBECK MPA ’97
Executive Vice President and Head of the Supervision Group / Federal Reserve Bank of New York Dianne Dobbeck is an executive vice president and Head of the Supervision Group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. She is a member of the New York Fed’s Executive Committee. Ms. Dobbeck oversees bank supervision for financial institutions in the Second Federal Reserve District. Additionally, she and her team represent the Federal Reserve on a number of domestic and international committees. Ms. Dobbeck is a member of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. She also sits on the Board of Governors’ Supervision Committee for the Federal Reserve System. Ms. Dobbeck has held various senior leadership positions at the New York Fed. Previously, she led the Supervisory Analysis function responsible for contributing analytics in support of supervisory and regulatory matters. At two different intervals, Ms. Dobbeck served as a senior officer directly responsible for the Fed’s supervision of the largest U.S. banks. Ms. Dobbeck holds a master’s degree from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree from Kalamazoo College.
ANN FUTRELL MPA ’09
Chief of the Natural Resources Cost Estimates Unit / Congressional Budget Office Ann E. Futrell is the chief of the Natural Resources Cost Estimates Unit at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in Washington, D.C. She oversees 11 analysts who estimate the budgetary effects of proposed legislation and prepare multiyear spending projections for federal programs related to agriculture, transportation, energy, natural
resources, and general government. She has managed the unit’s analysis for high-profile legislation including the farm bill, surface transportation and NASA reauthorizations, and permitting reform proposals. Ms. Futrell began her career at CBO in 2003, preparing projections of net interest and contributing to the recurring report, The Budget and Economic Outlook. After leaving CBO in 2007, she returned in 2011 as an analyst responsible for budget projections for veterans’ health care and international development programs. In 2020, she became a senior adviser, working with the director of CBO’s Budget Analysis Division to enhance the transparency and accessibility of the agency’s products. She also served as an adjunct professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, where she taught Public Budgeting, Expenditures, and Revenues and the capstone course in the Master of Public Administration program. Previously, she worked at the Peter G. Peterson Foundation in New York, where she managed a team of researchers working on fiscal policy issues. Ms. Futrell earned a Master of Public Affairs from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs and a Master of Arts in statistics from Columbia University. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Hampton University, Virginia.
BEN HAWRILUK MPA ’25
Research Scientist / AI and Society Lab at Princeton University Ben Hawriluk is a Research Scientist within the AI & Society Lab at Princeton University. He seeks to understand the tradeoffs society faces as artificial intelligence develops. He studies questions like: What is the right threat model to think about the risks AI poses to society? What is the technology underpinning AI chatbots? How does society react when cover letters no longer signal effort? How do humans interact with AI chatbots? Is peer review broken? Ben is responsible for technical AI system evaluations for sociologically relevant outcomes, leading a team of 20 undergraduate researchers, investigating historical sources to understand technological change, and managing several research partnerships. His latest work audited how LLMs reinforce spirals of delusions, mania, conspiracies or psychosis, and how they pushed back and referred users to help. The paper was the first to highlight the crucial importance of the “model-interface pair” when conducting evaluations. He is currently working on the first in-depth nationally representative survey to understand how Americans use chatbots for personal purposes and relate to them. He is a proud MPA graduate from SPIA, finishing in Summer 2025 with a concentration in international relations and technology policy. His graduate work bridged international security, global economic analysis, and the governance challenges posed by emerging technologies. He has worked at the US Treasury Department, for over four years as an Arabic linguist and research analyst, and has additional experience in technology consulting and emergency medical training.
HANNAH KAPOOR ’23
Project Manager, Trust & Safety Expert / Formerly Metal Hannah Kapoor graduated from Princeton SPIA in 2023 and joined Meta’s cybersecurity policy team in Washington, DC. She then worked as an Integrity Operations Manager on Meta’s Dangerous Organizations and Individuals Unit where she worked as a subject matter expert in counterterrorism and violence-inducing ecosystems, leading cross-functional efforts in policy implementation and LLM-based detection for geopolitical online harms. Outside of work, she directs mentorship programming at The Unbreakable Organization, a 501(c)(3) supporting young people impacted by violence, and advises early-stage public infrastructure startups. Hannah’s path into public interest technology was nonlinear. At Princeton, she conducted independent work with the Center for Information Technology Policy, served as vice president of undergraduate student government and copresident of the Princeton University Press Club, and was a Siegel Public Interest Technology Fellow. She can speak to navigating career pivots across sectors, public-private partnerships in technology, and how early-career professionals can navigate uncertainty and ambiguity in choosing their next steps.
RYAN KLAUS MPA ’23
Manager, Capital Marktes / Convergent Energy and Power Ryan Klaus (MPA ‘23) currently works as a Manager of Capital Markets at Convergent Energy and Power, a developer and operator of energy storage and solar-plus-storage projects. In his role, Ryan supports Convergent’s capital-raising efforts and financial operations, including non-recourse project financing, portfolio financing, tax equity, and valuation analysis for its growing portfolio of assets. Prior to working at Convergent, Ryan held positions at green banks in Illinois and New Jersey, where he developed financial products and evaluated transactions aligned with each state’s respective climate goals. During his time at SPIA, Ryan focused on exploring the various financial vehicles through which public and quasi-public entities can invest in and mobilize capital for emissions-reducing projects. As part of earning his Certificate in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy at SPIA, Ryan wrote his capstone paper on the intersection of green banks and environmental justice. In addition to his SPIA degree, Ryan previously graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a BBA in Finance and a minor in Poverty Studies.
KRISTEN LEE MPP ’27
Senior Product Manager / GiveDirectly Kristen has focused her career on designing and operationalizing unconditional cash transfer programs that combine rigorous research with scalable technology. She believes strongly in the power of cash transfers to give recipients the dignity of choice in how they meet their own needs. Her work has included partnering with the
governments of Togo and Malawi to implement national social protection cash programs. Most recently, as a Senior Product Manager, she built cash transfer programs supporting climate resilience and refugee self-reliance across multiple countries.
ALLIE MATTHIAS ’24
Senior Research Assistant / Brookings Institution Allie Matthias is a Senior Research Assistant at the Brookings Institution where she focuses on U.S.-China relations, domestic Chinese politics, and Chinese foreign policy. She also is a Community Grant Project co-leader with National Security Action. Prior to Brookings, she interned with the House Select Committee on China and the UN Women. She graduated from Princeton University in the School of Public and International Affairs in 2024.
DAVID S. MITCHELL MPA ’12 Senior Fellow / Washington Center for Equitable Growth
David S. Mitchell is a senior fellow for tax and regulatory policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. He previously served as Equitable Growth’s director of government and external relations. Prior to joining Equitable Growth, Mitchell was the associate director for policy and market solutions at the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program, where he led a growing team responsible for amplifying research and spurring action to address the short- and long-term financial challenges facing low- and moderate-income Americans, including income volatility, retirement insecurity, and consumer debt. He previously worked as a legislative aide to U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), handling healthcare and Social Security issues and working on the landmark health reform law that passed in 2010. He also has held positions with the U.S. Senate
Finance Committee, the White House National Economic Council, the law firm Hogan Lovells, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Citizens for Tax Justice, and the National Association of Community Health Centers. Mitchell holds a B.A. in political science from Tufts University, an M.P.A. from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a Public Interest Law Scholar.
MICHAEL O’HANLON PH.D. ’91 Director of Research – Foreign Policy; Director – Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology; Senior Fellow – Foreign Policy, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology; Philip H. Knight Chair in Defense and Strategy / Brookings Institution
Michael O’Hanlon is the inaugural holder of the Philip H. Knight Chair in Defense and Strategy and director of research in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, where he specializes in U.S. defense strategy and budgets, the use of military force, and American national security policy. He is a senior fellow and directs the Strobe Talbott Center on Security, Strategy, and Technology. He is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and Columbia University, a Lampert Scholar at Colgate University, and a former member of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board from 2021 to 2025. He was also a member of the external advisory board at the Central Intelligence Agency from 2011-12, and was a consultant to Forum AI in the spring of 2026. His newest book, timed to coincide with the nation’s 250th birthday, is “To Dare Mighty Things: U.S. Defense Strategy Since the Revolution” (Yale Press, 2026). In 2023, O’Hanlon published a book titled “Military History for the Modern Strategist: America’s Major Wars since 1861.” The paperback version, with a preface covering the American
Revolution as well as the declared wars of the 19th century, came out in 2024. O’Hanlon was an analyst at the Congressional Budget Office from 1989-1994, where he won the Director’s Award in 1992. His doctorate from Princeton is in public and international affairs, where he was awarded a National Science Foundation fellowship. His bachelor’s and master’s degrees, also from Princeton, are in the physical sciences. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1982-1984, where he taught college and high school physics in French. Earlier, he worked on a dairy farm in Upstate New York, where he grew up. During college, he attempted (unsuccessfully) with a team of Princeton experimental physicists in the “Gravity Group” to disprove Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity.
ANDRÉS L. PARRADO ’15 Director / Innovations for Poverty Action
Andrés is a Director at the Right-Fit Evidence Unit at Innovations for Poverty Action. He has over ten years of experience working at the intersection of data and evidence in Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. He holds masters degrees from MIT and the Harvard Kennedy School and an undergraduate degree from Princeton University.
KATHLEEN SONG ’23 MPA ’27 Investments Associate / Connecticut Green Bank
Kathleen is a climate change professional working to finance the deployment of clean energy across the US. She currently works on the Investments Team at the Connecticut Green Bank, where she underwrites loans for clean energy projects across the state. Previously, Kathleen served on the Industrial Innovation Team at the White
House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she tracked $500B in federal clean energy investment under the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. She later joined the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Energy Market Regulation, analyzing dockets for PJM, NYISO, ISO-NE, and investor-owned utilities, and then the US Senate, where she drafted a hydropower permitting reform bill and covered issues in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. She is a Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative (SINSI) Graduate Fellow and holds a Bachelor’s in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Princeton University.
CHARLES YI MPA ’03
Senior Executive Vice President, Government Relations / Independent Community Bankers of America Charles Yi served for 21 years in the federal government across a wide range of positions, including as General Counsel of the FDIC and Staff Director of the Senate Banking Committee. Charles’ other government experiences include the Treasury Department, House Financial Services Committee, Federal Housing Finance Agency, and U.S. Army.
2024 and 2025 Public Service Career Day panels, keynote speaker, and networking reception.
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