Careers in Child and Family Policy: Starting Your Career in Service

In this session, we will learn about opportunities to serve communities through Teach for America, AmeriCorps and the PeaceCorps. We will be joined by Ana Earl (MPP '25, Teach for America) Katie Lazar (MPP '25, AmeriCorps), and Conner Weis (MPP '24, PeaceCorps/AmeriCorps VISTA). In addition to serving communities in the US and abroad, our panelists have experience in non-profit organizations and public health. We will learn more from our speakers about each of these service programs and how starting their careers in service has influenced their career paths. Ana Earl Ana attended McGill University in Montreal, Canada where she majored in International Development Studies. She joined Teach for America Idaho as a 6-10th grade social studies and history teacher. Motivated to change the inequities her students faced every day in the classroom, Ana knew that she could make a larger difference in education through policy. She is excited to join Sanford as a MPP student to explore how public policy can improve universal access to education. She is most interested in social and education policy. Katie Lazar Katie received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan with a double major in Political Science and French. Katie truly began to deepen her interest in health policy as an AmeriCorps member with the Community Opioid Response program where she was a part of a statewide initiative to help local communities implement strategies to reduce opioid misuse. For the past five years, Katie has worked at a local public health department in Colorado as a tobacco prevention policy specialist, and as a part of the COVID-19 emergency response team. Conner Weis Connor attended St. Lawrence University where he studied Biology, Government, and African Studies. After graduating, Connor went on to serve in the Peace Corps in Northern Ghana as a health volunteer for over two years. Back in the USA, Connor worked at a lively organic vegetable farm in upstate New York for about a year and a half before returning to community development work as an AmeriCorps VISTA at a hospital in Southwestern Vermont. His work addressed the opioid epidemic and the region's economic recovery. This speaker series is for Duke students who want to learn more about careers in child and family policy. Meetings are designed to help students explore the wide range of job opportunities and careers while creating a network of students who share their professional interests.