Albert Eiffes, Evening Master’s Program Class of 2024

Strategic Planning Manager at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Operations Manager, Sanford Underground Research Facility. Director of Operations, Barksdale Air Force Base. Nuclear Maintenance Officer Instructor, Sheppard Air Force Base. Flight Commander, Minot Air Force Base.

Over the past 18 years, Albert Eiffes’s trajectory—first in the military and then in the energy field—has honed his analytical and project management skills.

“My colleagues have said I have the ability to ‘transform piles of administrative detritus into crisp, organized, and aligned direction and guidance,’” said Eiffes with a laugh. “Which is another way of saying that I have the ability to take trash and turn it into useful stuff.” In his current role at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, his organizational excellence has placed him in the position of managing a range of infrastructure projects and funds at the Lab.

“However,” Eiffes added, “as a global citizen—as a person on this rock—I think I can do better. Do more. I’ve always wanted to be of service.” 

Eiffes came to the Harris School of Public Policy looking to continue in his purpose.

“I first learned about the Evening Master’s Program through social events the University of Chicago hosts for prospective students. Every time I went to one, I thought, ‘This is something I want to do more of.’”

Harris, Eiffes said, offered the opportunity to learn more about the work he wanted to do. “Moving forward, I’d like to solve issues at an international level. I am naturally analytical and inspired by the mission and goals of scientific inquiry. I want to take a global view of problems. How do we take wherever we're at right now, name an end state, and try to move towards it? There are global problems of this nature that are ever-present. Existential threats to our species. Somebody has to do that work, and I think I'm capable of it. 

“While I’ve learned through experience that understanding the validity of existing data, knowledge gaps, and deciding how to move forward with that information is at the heart of effective policy, I know my scope and depth are limited. Harris’ mission statement, ‘social impact, down to a science’ confirmed for me that this is the best place for me to broaden my skill sets so that I can make the impact I want to.”

 The Evening Master’s Program, he added, was the ideal match as it allowed him to continue working full time. “As a father with a child still in high school, that’s incredibly important to me.” 

Eiffes offers this advice to prospective Harris students: “If you can’t connect what you’re doing to what drives you, change what you’re doing. Find the reason—it only has to be important to you, but there should be one. For me, it fundamentally bothers me that the world I have brought my son into has so many problems. But I’m not going to lament that. I’m going to work to change it, to make the world a better place for him.”