Q. You’ve had big names speak in your classroom throughout the years. What do you think pulls in so many politicians and notables?

A. It’s certainly not me that draws them in. I think what really draws them in is their own internal desire to share what they’ve learned, and that stems from the experience they’ve had. Very often [for] people who work in the industries of public affairs, years ago there just really weren’t very many programs that taught them practical things. You’d have to learn either through an apprenticeship or an internship.

You have all these people who are practitioners who [think], “Oh my God, we didn’t have that when we were in school. Of course I want to help support it.” I also think they’ve seen and done things that they want to share with people. Everybody wants to tell their story.

Q. How do you go about selecting guest speakers each semester?

A. Some of it is quite random. I’ll meet people at a conference or I’ll meet people from doing the “Political Rewind” [podcast], which really was to me one of the best things I ever did. Because of that show, I used to go to Atlanta and I would meet all these people, like Michael Thurmond, who’s come and spoken to the class maybe three times total.

I look and see who the movers and shakers are. I look and see people who the students are interested in. I try to mix it up. Every year we try to be very balanced so that we have left, right, middle, different types of jobs, men and women, different races and ethnicities. That way, students can see people doing the work and that these people look just like them. The public affairs arena has a ton of jobs. You don’t have to go to law school. You can if you want to, but there are hundreds of jobs right around here that you could do that you are totally equipped to do. That’s what the program does.

Q. Applied Politics is not the typical political science course. What makes your program, and notably the introduction class, so special?

A. Every year it’s gotten better because there is no other program like this that is directed towards undergrads. There are some programs that are like the future of campaign management, and those are usually master’s programs. But this is unique. 

We have a lot more opportunities for people to hear directly from people doing the job, and they may talk about how politics works on a very practical side. Maybe [our] literature hasn’t quite caught up with what’s really happening right now, or perhaps we’re finding that it’s confirmed. So in their readings, they may read some political science, but they’re also hearing from people who are saying it doesn’t quite work like that.

Think about the value of knowing how to run a focus group or how to write a bill memo or how to write policy analysis. Can you imagine going into your internship with those things already in your brain? That means you learn better. And not only do you learn better when you present yourself to these individuals who are looking to place people in jobs, but you have the basics in hand far earlier than most people. And most of our students are required to do an internship.

Q. Tell me a little more about some of the impactful speakers who have been in your class.

A. So, we’ve had the [late] speaker of the Georgia House, Speaker [David] Ralston. He was just so genuinely kind and talked about how his time with the students was so meaningful. It’s because he felt validated. He’s somebody who rarely did stuff just for himself. He really was truly a representative who cared about the state and the people in it. 

We’ve had Brendan Buck, who [previously] worked for Speaker [Paul] Ryan. He heard about the program, he thought it was great, and he basically paid his own way to come back to Georgia and talk to students about the work he did in communications and as an adviser.

One of the things that we often don’t see is students thinking about the city of Atlanta as a place to work in terms of government, but there’s so much to do. A couple of years ago, I invited Valerie Mills, who works in the mayor’s office and does a lot with integrating international members of the community into Atlanta’s business. She is so great. She came and spoke, and it just opened up a door for people. One of my students actually got a job as assistant secretary in the mayor’s office.

Q. If you weren’t a professor, what would you be doing?

A. Teaching is my jam. I really don’t know what I’d be doing because I love this so much. It’s like a perfect mesh where I get to be creative, I get to think about things all the time and I get to challenge myself. I get to hang out with young people, old people and people who love ideas. It’s pretty cool.

There’s not going to be a statue of me in Washington, D.C. But if I think about all the little grains of sand that I have contributed to somebody else’s success, in the end when I die, I’ll feel like I’ve made a mountain.