Alumni
Since 2010, Emory MDP has graduated over 200 alumni, 96% of whom are employed in relevant fields. See here for a distribution of MDP graduates across sectors. This network is an invaluable resource to current students, providing mentorship, internship opportunities, networking contacts, and job leads.
As a practice-oriented program, Emory MDP intentionally emphasizes
See below a list of employers of MDP graduates and some examples of alumni's profiles.
- Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab
- ACDI/VOCA
- American Institute for Research
- ANDE
- Atlanta Botanical Garden
- BRAC
- CARE
- Carter Center
- Center for Volunteer & Nonprofit Leadership
- Chemonics
- ChildFund
- Children Investment Fund
- CNN
- Common Future
- Community Housing Capital
- Concern Worldwide
- Conservation International
- DevWorks International
- Environmental Incentives
- Environmental Investigation Agency
- FHI 360
- Georgia Acquarium
- Girls Scouts USA
- Global Communities
- Global Fund for Women
- Global Growers
- 5 Gyres Institute
- Habitat for Humanity
- Innovation for Poverty Action
- International Economic Development Council
- International Justice Mission
- International Medical Corps
- International Republican Institute
- International Rescue Committee
- Int'l Water Management Institute
InterNews - Institute for Defense Analyses
- La Amistad
- Laureus
- Making Cents International
- Mercy Corps
- The Nature Conservancy
- National Committee for Responsible Philanthropy
- National Democratic Institute
- National Rural Health Association
- Oceana
- Operation Underground Railroad
- Partners of the Americas
- Partnership for Southern Equity
- Plan International
- Population Services International
- Save the Children
- Search for Common Ground
- SportEd
- Surfrider Foundation
- Task Force for Global Health
- Tearfund
- TechnoServe
- Women Learning Partnership
- UMCOR
- United Way
- Wildlife Conservation Society
- Winrock International
- World Learning
- World Resources Institute
- AmeriCorps
- City of Atlanta
- Defense Health Agency
- Environmental Protection Agency
- Federal Emergency Management Agency
- Indian Health Service
- Internal Revenue Service
- Millennium Challenge Corporation
- US Agency for International Development
- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- US Citizenship & Immigration Services
- US Department of Agriculture
- US Dept of State
- US Peace Corps

Lyndsey Czapansky
Senior Specialist in Housing Finance Systems, Habitat for Humanity, Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter
At the Terwilliger Center, Lyndsey works with the Financial Inclusion team, supporting financial and microfinance institutions that seek to assist low-income households in accessing quality, affordable, and sustainable housing. Her team also works on green housing finance products, including sustainable construction materials and financing for climate resilient shelter. More broadly, Lyndsey is responsible for partner engagement, project execution, and impact measurement and learning. This role is exactly why I went to graduate school" says Lyndsey" to intervene on systems that fail poor individuals and communities, I was looking for an opportunity to dig into global development programming, from project inception to project impacts, and asking whether we are really doing what we said we would be doing.
Josh Griffin
Assistant Director, Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity University of Washington
Based in Seattle WA, Josh works for the Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity (CCDE) at the University of Washington, a space where students, faculty, staff, and alumni gather to promote greater equity. Josh also works as a DEI consultant with The Carter Center’s Human Rights Program to organize and facilitate roundtables centered on on how artists use their artforms to advocate for social justice, prompting a globally-focused human rights organization to broader their agenda and advocate for civil rights in the U.S. “Through the MDP program, I gained a deep insight into the root causes of the structural injustices and political oppression that disenfranchised communities face due to the legacies of racism and colonialism" remarks Josh "At the same time, the racial reckoning that followed George Floyd's murder challenged us to take those theories to the streets and link them with the lived struggles of Black people in the US".

Ian Hamilton
Senior Advancement Officer CDC Foundation
As Senior Advancement Officer for Public-Private Partnerships, Ian manages the federal subaward portfolio at the CDC Foundation, an independent nonprofit created by Congress to mobilize philanthropic and private-sector resources to support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s work. Additionally, Ian contributes to multi-sector fundraising efforts for infectious, non-infectious diseases and global health projects. About the MDP program, Ian stresses that it "strengthened my ability to understand the interactions across scales and how to account for those by utilizing a human-centered design to develop solutioins. While in the program' I also honed my philanthropic skills during graduate assistantships with Emory College's Advancement and Alumni Association and with The Carter Center's Office of Estate & Gift Planning."

Marinangeles Gutiérrez Rivera
Senior Disaster Mitigation Specialist, ICF International
Marinangeles serves with the Disaster Management division of the global consulting firm ICF International. As a Specialist, she assists state and local governments in navigating the federal funding landscape to get the relief they need throughout disaster cycles. She also helps develop state and local action plans, analyzes impacts on critical services, coordinates community participation, and manages grants for programs related to green infrastructure, voluntary buyouts and acquisitions, resilience planning, and strengthening response services. About her MDP experience, Marinangeles says '“The program deepened my understanding of development theories and approaches, grounding those learnings in hands-on practice across organizations. These experiences consolidate my interest in disaster recovery and mitigation and commitment to responding to and reducing global displacement.”

Katie Pons
Knowledge, Learning, and Communications Advisor, Save the Children
Katie is based in Washington, D.C. and works for Save the Children as a Knowledge, Learning, and Communications Advisor. In her role, she supports several USAID/BHA-funded to promote food and nutrition security, particularly in evaluating impacts of humanitarian efforts. Katie is also engaged in a project aimed to removing barriers to gender and youth integration in development programming. More broadly, she leads the development of dissemination and socialization plans, produces technical deliverables, and facilitates peer-to-peer learning with practitioners around the world. "The MDP program helped me gain not only technical skills, but also equipped me with a critical lens to examine and challenge traditional development paradigms. In addition, the practice-oriented approach of the program offered me invaluable experiences to apply what I was learning in real-world settings."
