Ross Mudrick

Why did you choose Wagner for graduate school?

Wagner has a great reputation, of course, but the blend of theoretical and the practical was specifically attractive. Reading about professors who had been at the forefront on issues and challenges I cared deeply about, I realized that these were the people I needed to learn from.

How did being in New York impact your professional journey?

New York is such a vibrant city--lots of big thinkers and doers. It's impossible not to be inspired by the constant change, by the ambition, and by the new ideas. I don't truthfully know how someone could have a meaningful MPA experience outside of a big city, because you really need to see all this stuff in practice to understand it.

How did your Wagner experience prepare you professionally for what you are doing today?

When I launched my career as an independent consultant, I drew heavily on my Wagner network. Today, I'm able to handle work on a wide variety of issues (youth development, civic engagement, human rights, etc.) because Wagner prepared me to both understand how policy questions play out in real life and how to get up to speed quickly on a topic.