When Ashley Garcia Torres ’26 MPA started her one-year Masters of Public Affairs program at Brown’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs, she wasn’t certain about the road ahead. She wondered whether to next pursue law school or return to Colorado, where she had earned a political science degree from Regis University.
Through Watson’s Policy Mentor Network, though, Garcia Torres met Verónica Carbajal ’98, a prominent El Paso, Texas, civil rights attorney. The two were paired as mentor and mentee.
“Carbajal helped calm my fears about law school, especially as a fellow first-generation student,” said Garcia Torres. They also discussed the possibility of Garcia Torres staying on campus after she finished her MPA program. Garcia Torres decided to remain at the Watson School as a research assistant while she applied to law school.
Brown launched the Watson Policy Mentor Network in 2023 while the Watson School was transitioning from an institute to a school with increased faculty and academic offerings. The concept is to offer its students insights into future career options and suggestions on maximizing their degrees through help from Brown alumni or faculty who have thrived as diplomats, policy advisers, journalists, and global business leaders.
“We’ve found that the Brown alumni network is like our superpower,” said John N. Friedman, the inaugural Vascellaro Family Dean of the Watson School. He noted that international studies is different from other academic programs in that there are so many possible career paths—government, think tanks, academia. The Policy Mentor Network enables students to hear how alumni turned their classroom education into thriving careers, but Friedman stressed that the mentoring relationships are two-way streets.
“Our students benefit from getting to spend time … with folks who are out there in the world,” Friedman said, adding, “There’s such a breadth of people working in so many amazing positions in the world, and they are so interest-
ed and committed in trying to give back to the university, give back by helping our students.”
Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook ’99, former director and CEO for the German Council on Foreign Relations, enthusiastically signed up for the program at its inception. “[The school] wanted to introduce more of, you know, ‘the real world’ of policymaking into student lives and early in their career development,” Ashbrook said.
Paloma Adams-Allen ’95, president and CEO of the humanitarian nonprofit Airlink and a former top official at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), had been looking to give back to her alma mater when she learned about the opportunity to spend a year as a mentor. Her first trip back to campus took place the day after Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection, and students were concerned about the future of public policy jobs.
The former USAID official told students to continue pursuing their careers. “You should just continue to look at the U.S. federal government as a great source of career advancement and growth.”
Despite the state of federal programs like USAID—the Trump administration shut it down and folded it into the State Department—Adams-Allen said it was reinvigorating, at mid-career, to connect with students whose passion and energy is palpable.
“You can be glum about the future … but the [students] I interacted with as part of this program were really truly brilliant and committed.”
