Master of Public Affairs (MPA) Policy in Action Symposium highlights students' real-world deliverables

This year, Brown MPA students addressed a wide range of critical public policy issues through hands-on experience while providing concrete deliverables for real-world organizations, including: human rights and artificial intelligence, pretextual traffic stops, small business succession planning, Providence's fiscal crisis, urban sustainability, cybersecurity, industrial policy in the developing world, participatory budgeting in Providence public schools, lead paint enforcement, and the impact of remote work.

Sponsoring organizations included large governmental and non-governmental organizations such as the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. 

Brown MPA students also worked with smaller, local entities, including the Providence City Council, the Boston Main Streets Foundation, the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, and the Rhode Island Department of Human Services. 

Meanwhile, other groups addressed pressing global challenges while working with organizations like Project Baala, a non-profit working on innovative menstrual health solutions primarily in rural India. 

Participating private-sector organizations included Instiglio Inc., Growth Teams Inc., and Jeffery Goldthorp, Communications Regulation Expert.

Highlighted Policy In Action Projects

United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights (UN-OHCHR) — "Approaches to Human Rights in Artificial Intelligence and Migration Through UN Guiding Principles"

Team Members: Ulviya Chisty, Kuma Kumsa, Kunzang Namgyal, Sophia Sirois 

The team worked with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-OHCHR) on business and human rights for their Policy in Action (PIA) project. Their main point of contact for the project at the UN, Sonia Cuesta, works as an associate human rights officer at the UN and is a 2017 graduate of Brown's MPA program.

The first project the group undertook was researching regulations related to artificial intelligence (AI) worldwide. Kuma Kumsa noted, "AI is the new normal, and a lot of countries all over the world have been investing a whole lot of resources in it. But because of global competition, nations are not putting much emphasis on the human rights aspects."

According to the group's research, the strongest protections currently in place are in the European Union. They found few human rights protections from AI in the rest of the world. Kumsa noted that even in places like the African Union, where guidelines exist, there are currently no mechanisms in place to enforce them.

While the UN lacks the power to enforce rules regarding AI, Ulviya Chisty said, "a big advantage that it does have is that it can foster collaboration between different countries. One of the best things it can do is continue to create awareness of the human rights implications that exist because of AI. It is important to know that AI can be misused or abused, and to have a proper understanding of your rights in these circumstances as technologies like AI develop."

Sophia Sirois said creating a real-world deliverable for an organization like the UN helped to expand her skill set. "This project really helped refine my research skills," she said. "AI regulation in particular is such a new topic that it's not as simple as doing a Google search. We had to refine our search criteria to locate relevant and current information for emerging global policies," she added. She also noted that creating the report for the UN helped her learn to write in a way that is succinct while still including as much impactful information as possible.

Working on the project helped Kumsa develop a more global perspective on problems. "I learned a lot about how organizations are structured," he said. "Some countries rely on their judicial system heavily, while others use the power of the executive branch to address issues," he said. He noted that boiling down all these global complexities into a concise report was a "struggle," albeit a welcome one.

Chisty noted that creating a functional report for a real-world organization gave her insights she wouldn't have gotten writing a paper for a professor. "It's a very client-facing role," she said. "We had to make sure we were doing the research properly while also sticking to deadlines and meeting the UN's standards and requirements. Fortunately, we were able to quickly adjust to the organization's needs." "That's a skill I know I'll be able to take into the workplace with me," she added.

All participants agreed that one of the most essential skills they developed was learning to work together as a team. "Our team has worked hard to make sure that we have open lines of communication with each other," said Kunzang Namgyal. "Throughout the project, we leveraged everyone's individual strengths," she said. Kumsa added, "I genuinely appreciated the generous feedback we gave each other. I've been in the workforce for a while, so I know what an important skill that is." He said he also appreciated the thoughtful feedback Cuesta, the project supervisor, gave them.

For her part, Cuesta, currently in her fourth year working at the UN, said it was a pleasure to work with the Watson PIA group. "They are a highly motivated group, which helped them hit the ground running to provide research and analysis on some very complicated topics related to business and human rights," she said. "They've all produced excellent work," she said, "and I look forward to seeing what they achieve after they graduate from the program."

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)  — "Safety for All: An Analysis of the New Jersey Traffic Stop Data"

Team members: Arjun Badami, Phoebe Marwill, Isabella Nadeau

The group collaborated with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to establish an evidence base for the organization's legislative advocacy aimed at ending pretextual traffic stops in New Jersey. The bill, NJ A2019, would prohibit police from making stops solely based on minor violations.

Phoebe Marwill explained that pretextual stops, "are basically for things like fuzzy dice or expired registration, which don't affect the driver's safety but have been shown in previous research to have significant racial disparities and poor outcomes."

According to the research the group has done, pretextual stops are common in New Jersey. "Based on the data we've looked at, from 2009 to 2020, New Jersey State Police made roughly six million traffic stops," said Arjun Badami, "of those, slightly under one quarter are pretextual using the ACLU's definition."

The group also found significant evidence of racial bias in these stops. According to Isabella Nadeau, "When you benchmark the percentage of drivers who are being stopped by race against the percentage of drivers by race we would expect to see on the road, we found powerful evidence of disproportionate impact on racial minorities."

The students plan to deliver an extensively researched report to the ACLU at the end of the semester. Marwill explains, "It will be a lengthy policy report with visualizations. We are personally making both tables and bar graphs that summarize our findings and the ACLU can use in what's called a 'one-pager.'"

A one-pager is a crucial document for any organization engaged in advocacy work. As the name implies, they are one-page documents distributed to legislators that present a concise case for why a specific bill should become law. "They've mentioned wanting to use our analysis as a playbook for affiliates in other states looking to pass similar legislation," Marwill added.

Badami noted that some of the areas the group needed to work hardest on in the project are the exact kinds of problems that often arise when applying learned skills to real-world problems. While both he and Marwill had previous experience with coding, he noted, "From a technical perspective, getting the code to run in the specific way we needed has been the most challenging thing we've faced." When analyzing the compiled data, the group found gaps in the data and differences in how categories were treated. "It's a very good example of the real-world experience that Watson is trying to give us," he added.

Another critical skill the group developed as they worked on the project was presenting the information in a way that is easy to understand. "We read a number of excellent reports that had done similar analysis in other states that were just incredibly inaccessible," said Marwill. "Even with statistical training from Brown, it took us hours to parse through what they were doing." "We wanted to make sure our analysis was robust, but still accessible to legislators who have varying backgrounds and levels of expertise and time to spend understanding this," she added.

Nadeau noted the group also gained valuable insight into how policy is developed in the real world, "During this project, we were able to see that the lifespan of a bill is really complicated. Even when it is first being written, compromises are already being made." She noted that, "People were meeting behind the scenes who were adjusting things as we were conducting our analysis, so we had to be flexible in our response." 

"As someone who eventually wants to pivot back into the policy space," said Nadeau, "it goes to show that patience is necessary. You need to be able to adapt and adjust, and understand that the lifespan of a policy is not necessarily linear, so you need to be able to ride with that." 

The ACLU team was awarded the Policy in Action Project Award at the recent MPA Student Awards and Recognition Ceremony. The annual award recognizes the student project team whose project deliverables and performance throughout their PIA project best embody and align with the MPA program's mission to elevate and cultivate future global leaders.