Making Public Policy Personal with Anna Lenaker '19 MPA '20

After getting a master’s degree in public affairs at Watson, it’s common for folks to work in government, or with an NGO, or on a political campaign. Less common is what Anna Lenaker, from the Watson MPA class of 2020, did after graduating. She wrote a memoir. The book, titled ‘Able to Be Otherwise,’ tells the story of Anna’s turbulent childhood, growing up with a mother who suffered from overlapping struggles with mental health, poverty, and addiction. On this episode Sarah talks with Anna about her at-times-unbelievable journey from the streets of Tijuana, to fire-ravaged forests of California, to the halls of Brown University. In telling this story, she also provides a powerful argument for how we might re-envision the role of public policy in an interconnected world. You can learn more about -- and purchase -- ‘Able to Be Otherwise’ here or here. You can learn more about Watson’s other podcasts here.