Student Profile: Kenneth Zalke, MPP Class of 2023

“By the end of my second year at the University of California, Riverside, I was at a bit of a loss on what my professional trajectory should be,” said Kenneth Zalke. “I had been studying business economics, in part, because most of my family had been in sales and because I wanted to take the math classes that came with economics.” While he liked his core economics classes, Zalke said he was discouraged by the limited growth he saw in his internship opportunities. “So I dove headfirst into elective classes during my third year. I decided, somewhat randomly, to take a class called Women’s Labor in the Economy, and after the first lecture, I was totally stunned by the professor. I actually tweeted, ‘That labor economics class may or may not have just changed my life.’”

That professor—Dr. Carolyn Sloane—ended up playing a central role in Zalke’s undergraduate experience and beyond. Dr. Sloane served as Zalke’s mentor while he worked as her research assistant, where he examined issues related to labor economics and conducted an independent study of his own. Directly after graduating, Zalke began working at Resolution Economics, a litigation consulting firm dealing with labor and employment law. “The partners all have PhDs and master’s degrees—some from the University of Chicago—and provide expert testimony in cases dealing with things like employment discrimination. I basically did the data analysis and math that the lawyers could not do themselves,” he said. “It was a great experience because all the people at the top have higher degrees related to economics and statistics, and I was able to absorb so much from them.”

Even though Zalke learned an incredible amount from his colleagues at Resolution Economics,  he recognized there were still barriers to moving up in the field. “I simply didn’t have the training—in economics, statistics, or computer science—to get to the next level.” Additionally, Zalke began to think about public policy when his work at Resolution Economics began to mirror policy debates related to the classification of gig workers in his home state of California. “I knew things about labor and law, but I’d never been formally trained in public policy.” While serving as a poll worker during the 2020 election, Zalke discovered the legislative analyst role in voter information guides he was instructed to hand out. He researched the role after the election and became aware of the plethora of exciting careers that exist at the intersection of economics and public policy. Zalke decided to pursue a graduate program in a related field.

“The next step was finding a program that would round out my economics, statistics, and computer science training while building out my public policy knowledge. Fortunately,” Zalke said with a laugh, “Dr. Sloane had a thought about that.”

In addition to earning her PhD from Harris in 2016, Dr. Sloane has been a visiting Associate Professor at Harris and is a scholar with the Becker Friedman Institute. “Dr. Sloane had been promoting Harris to me since I was an undergraduate. I was a little intimidated by the caliber of individuals applying to Harris, but as I started looking into the rigor of the programs and reflecting on the value of my own experience, I knew I had to at least apply.” 

Zalke was originally interested in other graduate programs offered at Harris, but when comparing programs, he said, "I realized I could get exactly what I wanted from the MPP.”

Zalke looks forward to working with Harris professors in some capacity, hopeful that he’ll be able to build on the formative work he did with Dr. Sloane. Once he finishes his degree, Zalke is interested in working as a legislative analyst. However, he is not setting anything in stone. “I’m excited for the potential to be diverted in multiple directions at Harris—I’m looking forward to exploring what’s out there over the next two years.”