Alumni Profile: Astrid Garcia, MPP’23

Astrid Garcia, MPP’23, uses her Harris skills as Technical Communicator and Program Manager for the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) in Washington D.C. “I translate the data, research, and evidence produced by the researchers into more understandable language. In my role as Program Manager, I help oversee and coordinate the execution of these research projects.”

Garcia’s interest in making ideas accessible is rooted in her upbringing in La Vega, one of the 32 parishes in Caracas, Venezuela. “While La Vega was a rough neighborhood known for its high crime rate, gang violence, and a high rate of school dropout, I saw that outside media would only cover the violence or chaos. They would not tell the stories of the brave, talented, and resilient community members or the stories of those working hard to make their way in the world.”

As someone who grew up in the neighborhood and was raised by a single mom, Garcia said she not only knew and experienced the more interesting side of the community but also knew the stories of those living in La Vega. “I decided that those stories had to be told. And that I would tell them.”

Garcia subsequentially studied Mass Communications at Universidad Católica Andrés Bello. While in college, she worked as a producer at Venevision, Venezuela’s largest TV channel, where she covered personal interest stories and Venezuela’s 2016 parliamentary elections.

During this time, however, her family had to move to a refugee shelter due to flooding. “It was then,” Garcia said, “I decided it was time to shift from telling stories to working to fix the issues I saw around me.”

Garcia decided to apply for an internship at the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington, D.C., and over the course of three years rose to Program Communications Officer. There, she led communications for the bank’s e-learning programs. Following IDB, Garcia joined the Vice Presidency of Communications team of the World Bank in 2019, where she worked on the World Bank’s COVID-19 response by  producing live-stream interviews with experts and helping design a website for the bank’s COVID-19 programs in more than 100 countries.

However, Garcia said she wanted to find a way to better connect her technical skills with social impact. “When I began looking at public policy programs, the Master of Public Policy program at Harris seemed a perfect match.”

Once at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, Garcia quickly turned her attention to building a more robust set of research tools. “One of the main goals I had when I was applying to Harris was to learn more about quantitative skills—stats, data analysis—so of course I opted to pursue the Data Analytics Specialization.

In addition to quant and data analytics skills she learned at Harris, Garcia said she’s also using skills such as stakeholder engagement and cost-benefit analysis at 3ie. “Although analyzing and interpreting complex data is a critical element of my work, the ability to elicit and understand what stakeholders are seeking to accomplish—especially with research initiatives focused on humanitarian assistance or agriculture—is equally important. Harris prepared me with the tools to do just that, which means I can provide clients the best evidence to inform their decision-making processes.”