When Kathy Koehler (MPA’98) came to O’Neill, she was already entrenched in the working world. She had earned her undergraduate degree in psychology because she wanted to help people.
“I started out wanting to help children,” she says. “In learning more about what kids were going through, I saw issues in the educational system and decided it would be more effective to try to change government systems rather than help individual children.”
That led her into state government where she worked for multiple agencies before eventually joining Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration.
“I really felt the human services area was a way to help children and all people, which is what I had been searching for,” she explains. “I’m a government nerd and think we should provide good government services and safety nets to make sure people are alright.”
But she knew she would need a robust policy knowledge base to be as effective as possible. So, while she worked in state government during the day, she returned to the classroom by night.
“I was looking at grad schools for public policy, and I was very conscious of who’s the best and wanting to go to the best programs,” she says. “O’Neill was right at the top of the list and it was here at home. I couldn’t have planned it better.”