Danielle Wildkress, Chief Program Officer, Brilliant Corners
Meet the team!
Jordy Coutin
Jordy Coutin is a MPP at USC with an undergraduate in Economics and Conservation & Resources Studies from UC Berkeley. His current policy focus is in housing and homelessness, as well as quantitative research methods for policy analysis. Prior to joining USC, he worked as a Housing Coordinator with Brilliant Corners, allocating housing subsidies and providing property-related tenant services to formerly homeless clients in order to improve housing stability.
Holly Milburn-Smith
Holly Milburn-Smith is a Master of Public Policy student at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy and a research assistant at the Price Center for Social Innovation. Before arriving at USC, Holly worked in social service provision and management both domestically and internationally. Some of her favorite professional experiences include working with incarcerated mothers and their children in New York state prisons, managing workforce development programs for justice-involved youth in Chicago, and developing educational programming for children with disabilities in Haiti. In her free time, she enjoys weeknight concerts, traveling, and running on the Strand (because it’s flat). In the pandemic, she enjoys formatting spreadsheets and recording podcasts from her closet.
Karla Fernandez
Proudly born and raised in the Los Angeles region, Karla is a second year MPP student at USC Price. Karla attended the University of Chicago and previously worked as a teacher and educator for students with disabilities, foster youth, and first-generation college-going students in Chicago, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area. She is passionate about educational equity, economic justice, and housing policy. In her free time, Karla enjoys hiking, discovering new music, cooking, and watching a good movie.
Molly Creighton
Molly Creighton is a Master’s Student in the Public Policy Program at USC’s Sol Price School of Public Policy. Currently, she is a data researcher at the Price Center for Social Innovation where she collects, analyzes and disseminates LA neighborhood-level data through data stories to community partners through the Neighborhood Data for Social Change (NDSC) platform. She has also worked on jail reform initiatives in Alameda County, implementing a women’s health program within the county Jail. Her policy interests include sustainability, social justice and the intersection of mental health and incarceration.
Katherine Lee
Katie Lee is a Master of Public Policy student at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. Katie was born and raised in Sacramento, CA and moved to the East Coast to earn her B.S. in Biology at Haverford College. Upon graduating, she stayed in Philadelphia and joined the undergraduate admissions team at Haverford College, playing a direct role in admitting students and building community on campus. Katie became passionate about education policy and social justice, particularly during her time as an admission officer, which is what led her to pursue her MPP at USC. During her time at Price, she has become more interested in how policy can be communicated in accessible ways to more deeply engage stakeholders, the power in cross-sectoral partnerships, and advocacy in the public sphere.
Rit Shukla
Rit Shukla is a Masters of Public Policy candidate at USC. His main career interests are in health policy. Rit is currently working at the COVID-initiative at USC's Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics. He enjoys playing basketball, following current tech trends, and of course listening to podcasts.
Colin Harmony
Colin Harmony is a second-year Master of Public Policy candidate at USC Price. Colin is principally interested in the dynamic relationships between and ramifications of tax regimes/alternative economic development incentives and housing policies at the municipal level. Prior to enrollment at USC Price, Colin received a Bachelor of Science in psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied the effects of sociocultural frameworks on policy outcomes. In his spare time, Colin enjoys spending time with friends and family and reading up on L.A.’s rich and complex sociocultural and political histories.
Jonah Chang
Jonah is a second-year MPP student from the DC metro area. His interests fall within storytelling and media communications through a policy lens. He is particularly fascinated in the intersection of social impact and media narratives. Jonah is currently conducting research at the Norman Lear Center Media Impact Project to determine how certain television content can affect perceptions of healthcare, aging, and clinical trials. In his free time, you can find Jonah eating beef rolls in the San Gabriel Valley or creating yet another playlist on Spotify (open to music recommendations!).
Alexander Sarno
Alexander Sarno is a second-year Master of Urban Planning and Master of Public Policy (’22) dual-degree candidate at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, and Chair of the Board intern for LA County First District Supervisor Hilda Solis. Alexander’s overarching professional goal is to work through the public policy and urban planning mediums to integrate the global economic model with ecologically sustainable and equitable societal practices. Alexander also holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of St. Thomas (MN) in International Studies with an economics focus and Justice and Peace studies minor. His prior work experience includes positions with Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES), the Peace Corps - Dominican Republic Office, the USC Center for Sustainability Solutions, and the U.S. Green Building Council - Los Angeles Chapter (USGBC-LA).
Steven Nagy
A native of Lakewood, CA, Steven obtained his B.A. in Peace & Conflict Studies with a concentration in Global Governance from UC Berkeley in 2015. Originally interested in foreign policy, his undergraduate studies focused on how globalization spurred urbanization and environmental degradation in Latin America. After graduation, he worked as a congressional staffer in the offices of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Sen. Barbara Boxer, and Rep. Linda Sánchez. His current policy interests include education, foreign, urban, and environmental policy. He speaks Spanish and Portuguese, and also serves as a Camp Kesem Alumni Ambassador for the LA/OC region.
Riley McMackin
Riley McMackin is a student at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy pursuing a progressive degree program, meaning she is completing her Bachelor of Science in Public Policy while also beginning her Master of Public Policy degree. She is highly passionate about criminal justice reform, expanding access to healthcare with a focus on mental health and addiction services, and environmental policy.
Kelsey Paulino
Kelsey Paulino is a Master of Public Policy student at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. Prior to graduate school, Kelsey was a Dean of Students at the Denver School of Science and Technology: Henry Middle School. As a dean, Kelsey led in the development, implementation, and evaluation of DSST: Henry's whole school systems of discipline and culture. Currently, while in graduate school she serves as a consultant on a team assessing the needs of a Los Angeles based education nonprofit client whose mission is to affect the impact of student homelessness on student academic achievement outcomes across Southern California. In an effort to identify the impact of the client's services on student recipients, she evaluates the effectiveness of client-recipient service programs by utilizing various methods in statistical programming and data analysis.