Alumni Profile: Hannah Flint, PWC’25, EMP Class of 2026

Hannah Flint, PWC’25 and EMP Class of 2026, is a detective with the Chicago Police Department (CPD). “Since joining CPD in 2018, I have actively sought ways to help improve this profession,” she said. “In 2023, I had the opportunity to work with three civilian employees of CPD who impressed me with their analytical approach to policy and public service—and they were all Harris alumni. The conversations I had with them highlighted the power and possibility of policy in the Chicago Police Department—and encouraged me to enroll in the Evening Master’s Program.”

While enrolled in EMP, Flint also took the opportunity to take the Persuasive Writing Credential. “The program had practical and individualized deliverables: I was able to tailor my portfolio to what I'm hoping to do at CPD.” In fact, Flint said, she’s already shared her portfolio with colleagues: “It’s a way to bridge conversations and broach somewhat difficult topics. I can say, ‘Hey, I've worked on this as a school project, will you check it out and tell me what you think?’ It's a great way to open that door and get a conversation going on a real policy topic.”

PWC, Flint said, unequivocally helped strengthen her writing. “The skills, tips, and feedback David Chrisinger provided really helped me put on paper—in a logical and reasoned way—the ideas I had about my profession and craft it into a policy framework.

“Plus,” she added, “the Harris—and broader University of Chicago—community is such an academically rigorous and open-minded, curious place. You encounter so many new and exciting ideas.”

However, one facet of PWC, Flint admitted, caught her a bit off guard—incorporating AI in her writing process. “I had been hesitant to use AI—like: ‘I have no idea what it will do. I'm going to get accused of plagiarism. I'm never touching that.’ But Chrisinger taught us how to write with AI, and I realized we can use AI to help brainstorm and edit our work—or to read it from the perspective of a certain stakeholder. It was really cool and relevant to learn, and Chrisinger made it incredibly approachable.”

Now, as an EMP student, Flint said she’s picking up more skills to add to her toolkit. “The Public Finance and Budgeting course with Justin Marlowe really stands out, and not only because Professor Marlowe is very personable and a great communicator. On the first day of class, he said, ‘We're all money people, and here are skills and tools to understand what that looks like.’ And as someone who doesn’t consider herself a money person at all, I not only learned a lot, but now join financial conversations with greater confidence.”

Marlowe, she added, also oversaw the 2025 Policy Innovation Challenge, and several groups from EMP participated.” It was lots of fun to compete with my Harris classmates in an environment that allowed us to practice what it will be like to present innovative policy ideas to real policy makers. This kind of real-world application was something I really wanted to get out of my education at Harris, and it did not disappoint.”

Flint said that although working, going to school, and being a mom with three children has definitely been a balancing act, “I’ve had a lot of people encourage me, and I appreciate the opportunity to demonstrate to my daughters the value in spending time and energy on yourself in furtherance of helping others.”

Helping others, Flint said, really defines her underlying motivation. “I feel that's what drew me to law enforcement—wanting to do something where my actions really mattered to other people…and to improve the profession so that I leave it better than I found it.”