Gage enjoyed his role at the YMCA in Green Bay but sought more expertise in grant writing, program assessment, and data-driven decision making. He enrolled in the Master’s of Public Administration program at UW-Green Bay. After graduating, he quickly advanced his career, becoming the Associate Director of Community Impact at the United Way Fox Cities. Now, Gage improves community well-being by identifying local needs, managing investments, and using data to guide funding priorities and drive results in education, financial stability, and health. Explore Master’s of Public Administration at UW-Green Bay.
Video Transcript: I’m pursuing a Master’s of Public Administration because it’s directly aligned with my role at the Greater Green Bay YMCA as the Director of Community Impact and Grants, so I’ve been able to learn all about the intricacies of managing a nonprofit organization. One of my favorite courses at the MPA program was the Public and Nonprofit Program Evaluation course, where we got to create plans to evaluate a potential program, and that really aligned with my professional career at the YMCA, where part of my role is to assess program quality. My capstone in the MPA program allowed me to blend all of the MPA courses into one final project, which was really high impact and really summarized the entire MPA program for me. My project was to implement and evaluate a program quality assessment process for the Greater Green Bay YMCA’s youth development programming. I’m proud to be a Phoenix because it’s given me the skills and knowledge to take my passions into a career.