Alumni Spotlight

Summer 2017

Matthew Christ 

Christ, who graduated from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 2015, is a staff attorney to Florida Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente. He completed the center's Public Leadership minor and served on both the Graham Center's UF Mission Statement Study Group and Public Service Council.

"The Bob Graham Center's alumni leave UF with the necessary tools to be effective leaders in their communities and professions, which ensures that UF alumni are instrumental in solving the problems confronting Florida, the nation and the world."

Jerry Bruno

Bruno is the Special Assistant to the Deputy Commissioner for Family Services in the New York City Department of Homeless Services. He was a Tallahassee intern and Graham Civic Scholar. Additionally, he completed the center's Public Leadership minor. 

"The center is a dynamic, vibrant and thought-provoking space. It is really creating the next generation of public leaders. It adds to the richness of the UF community through the students its training, the opportunities it provides and more importantly the passion it is instilling in folks to give back."

Ashley Lagaron

Following graduation, Lagaron, who was a Graham Center Policy Scholar during her time at the University of Florida, attended Stanford University, where she received a master's in political science and government. What is she up to now? She is a Senior Applied Data Scientist (Non-Profit Team) at Civis Analytics in Chicago. 

"The Graham Center exposed me to conducting research and inspired me to think quantitatively about difficult challenges in the social sciences, which has inspired the trajectory of my career. The center exposes students to the wide range of work that can be done to improve civic engagement. It also elevates the ideas of students and gives them a platform to take ownership of important policy problems."