Alumni Profile: Jordan Graham, MPP'21

Jordan Graham’s six years writing about local government for the Orange County Register newspaper in California cemented his desire to explore a career in policy.

Originally from Evanston, IL, Graham earned a BA in economics from the University of Illinois and an MA in journalism at Medill, Northwestern University’s School of Journalism.

After graduating from Medill in 2010, Graham covered local government issues in Chicago. “That formative experience illustrated how important these governing bodies are in the daily lives of citizens. I saw what people care about, and how local government works to address those issues.”

Graham accepted a job with the Orange County Register in 2013, where he wrote numerous watchdog investigations. There, he exposed instances of police brutality in county jails, how no police force in Orange County was investigating claims of rape and violence in the county’s largest homeless encampment, and how gaps in the county’s public health care system had allowed homeless deaths to reach an all-time high. 

As part of a team investigation into recurrent deaths and mass corruption in the national epicenter of the drug rehabilitation industry, Graham revealed how unscrupulous practices often left recovering addicts from across America homeless on the streets of Southern California. “Rehab Riviera: An investigation into the abuses of Southern California’s drug rehab industry” won the team multiple awards, including first place for investigative reporting at the 2018 California Journalism Awards.

However, as Graham reported on the failures of local government, he found himself becoming consumed by how policies failed—and frustrated when bad policies persisted.

“Covering county-level government was compelling,” Graham says, “but it was draining to write every day about societal problems and not get a real say in what the solutions could be. As a journalist, you can identify a problem and even write about how other municipalities or states have addressed those issues, but at the end of the day you’re part of an ecosystem. For every time I’d see a government response to a problem I wrote about, there would be a half-dozen times that nothing changed.” 

This feeling, combined with his desire to become involved in the fight against climate change, led Graham to pursue the Master of Public Policy at Harris, where he also earned a Certificate in Energy & Environmental Policy.

Graham says his class on Energy Economics and Policy with Lecturer Donnan Steele provided him with a solid foundation in the economics of electric utilities and electricity markets, which has helped him in regulatory dockets. Meanwhile, his Energy Policy and Human Behavior class with Professor Kim Wolske taught him to incorporate behavioral insights into public-facing environmental and energy programs. “Large-scale problems, such as environmental ones, require interdisciplinary solutions. The adaptability of my public policy degree is preparing me to tackle those challenges.”

Beginning his last quarter at Harris, Graham started a full-time job as a Policy Advisor to Illinois Commerce Commission Chairman Carrie Zalewski, where he advised on Illinois utility regulation. In June 2022, Graham began working for Tesla as a Senior Energy Policy Advisor, focusing on improving the regulatory environment for distributed solar and storage systems in the eastern U.S.

“I had an internship with Tesla while at Harris—an internship I found through the Career Development Office—which allowed me to develop relationships within the company that eventually helped me land my current role,” Graham said, “My time at the Illinois Commerce Commission taught me about the potential—and complexities—of pushing for regulatory change, and at Tesla, I hope to use those lessons to push for policies that help hasten the clean energy transition.”