She had particularly high praise for Polatty, who also serves as director of Watson’s Military Fellows program. “I came to Brown with high expectations for the faculty,” said Prinz, “and Professor Polatty surpassed every one of them. He took a genuine interest in his students, and the relationship I’ve continued to maintain with him has been one of the most meaningful parts of my Brown experience. He truly cares about making a positive impact and about getting to know and supporting his students throughout their journeys.”
As a graduate student, Prinz continued to work closely with Polatty and also credits Dany Bahar as a particularly influential professor.
Bahar’s Policy Questions and Quantitative Methods to Explore Them course, which focused on contemporary economic policy issues and quantitative methods for evidence-based policymaking, taught Prinz how to present complex information in an accessible way. Bahar also supported her Policy in Action Project, which she completed with The Emerson Collective.
“There was a general narrative in Chile that migration was increasing crime, and The Emerson Collective wanted to understand whether that claim was supported by evidence or driven by public perception and bias,” said Prinz.
Using prison and indictment data, the team compared outcomes among Chilean-born and foreign-born populations. Their findings revealed a significant gap between accusation and conviction rates.
“Our findings showed that immigrants were indicted at higher rates than they were ultimately convicted. In many cases, they were being accused but were not found guilty.”
“That project demonstrated how public perception can diverge from the evidence,” she said. “It also taught me just how valuable data and evidence are in informing policymaking and shaping public opinion.”
The project reinforced one of the most important lessons Prinz took away from her time at Watson: evidence matters, but so does the way it is communicated. “It was an interesting realization that the way you present data is almost as important as the data itself,” she said. “Because data tells the story and the story tells people what to focus on.”
For someone who has always enjoyed teaching, the lesson resonated. “When it comes to policy and government work, not everyone has a mathematical or technical background,” said Prinz. “The data needs to be accessible. So I tried my best to simplify and showcase the findings in a way that was accessible.”
That instinct, to translate complex ideas into something people can understand, followed her beyond the classroom.
During her time at Brown, Prinz worked as a tutor for The Brown Refugee Youth Tutoring and Enrichment Organization (BRYTE) and remains in close contact with her former tutee. She also completed internships at the world’s fifth-largest software company, SAP, and the German Council of Economic Experts, experiencing firsthand the differences between the private and public sectors.
At SAP, she worked on a sustainability team and learned how corporate sustainability operates in practice. At the German Council of Economic Experts, she learned how research is conducted and ultimately shared with governments to inform policy.
Upon graduating, Prinz chose to begin her career in the private sector. She liked its fast pace and culture of innovation. She sought guidance from fellow Brown alumni working in sustainability, a series of conversations that led her to Tango, formerly WatchWire, where she has worked ever since.
Today, Prinz serves as a senior sustainability consultant, working across internal and external teams to improve sustainability software and help businesses track and reduce their emissions.
“It’s been an amazing experience,” said Prinz. “I’ve gained a lot of hard skills in carbon accounting and emissions reporting. It also showed me there are some skills that aren't being taught at Brown, so I wanted to bring those experiences to Brown students.”
The impulse is a familiar one. The girl who once created lesson plans for imaginary students now found herself drafting lesson plans for future sustainability professionals.
Over the past two years, she has worked with Mark Tracy from the Institute at Brown for the Environment and Society (IBES) to explore ways to introduce practical sustainability skills into the curriculum, particularly carbon accounting. Last October, she returned to campus as a guest lecturer, presenting a lesson on corporate sustainability, which she hopes will one day evolve into a workshop or series.
Years after filling makeshift classrooms with imaginary students, Prinz remains tuned in — still engaged, still learning, still sharing what she’s learned to help the people around her. Her advice for current and prospective students is in many ways the same lesson she’s been practicing since childhood.
“Come in with a sense of what you want to explore and apply what you’re learning to something you genuinely care about. For me, that meant constantly connecting classroom theory to climate and immigration policy. It helped me better understand the concepts while building expertise in areas that mattered to me.”
“And secondly, engage with the Brown community. Many of the relationships you build here last well beyond graduation. Some of my most meaningful experiences came from putting myself out there and getting involved.”
