Alumni

Brodi Fontenot has researched, analyzed, and made budget recommendations on high-profile issues such as the housing credit crisis, funding for veterans' services, and housing for victims of hurricane Katrina. He was recruited from the MPA program as a senior analyst with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington, DC, where he worked for five years before becoming a budget analyst with the U.S. Senate. Currently he analyzes transportation, veterans' affairs, and commerce and housing credit issues for the Senate Budget Committee.

Through his work, the largest budget increase in the Department of Veterans' Affairs history was fully funded in 2008. He drafted the 2008 and 2009 annual federal budget proposals for 17 civilian and military departments and agencies with over $180 billion in annual outlays.

Analyzing and making recommendations on the budget often involves consideration of complex, seemingly competing interests. "It's important to keep in mind that we live in a big, diverse country. In transportation, for instance, we have to consider urban areas with heavy traffic issues and rural areas with open roads that don't get snow removal quickly enough. Balancing those interests at a national level is where we sit."

Fontenot says the kind of peer policy analysis taught in the MPA program is invaluable. "We ask a series of questions: What is the public good? What is the government's interest? How much is this going to cost? Who is driving this agenda? Who needs to get on board to make this happen? We frequently did real-world simulations in the MPA program," Fontenot says. "We learned to understand that there are not just ideas you have to deal with on any issue, but people who have their own perspectives, pressures, and history."

For the GAO, Fontenot led a 4-person team evaluating the federal efforts to house victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and received a GAO performance award for real-time information gathering on that project. He also analyzed federal funding to Native Americans in Alaska. He found that cultural sensitivity was critical as he interviewed people from 100 different tribes in far-flung rural villages. "In the MPA program, I learned structured interview techniques, open response, and how to do policy analysis as part of a student team project investigating beach nourishment along the NC coast," Fontenot says. "That's exactly what I did years later for the project in Alaska."

Fontenot describes his work with the budget committee as fast-paced and time-pressured. ""Everybody I work with is smart and driven," he says, "and that motivates me as well. When an important decision has to be made in a matter of minutes," he says, "being able to understand what someone is asking you, and then immediately responding with the necessary information, is important. The MPA program taught me to present arguments clearly and succinctly."

He says, "I can't think of a better preparation for my career. There is no part of what I learned at the MPA Program that I have not applied in my work."