Voinovich School alumni drive change through their passion for public service

Three alumni of the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service—Rebekah Green, Jeremy Phan, and India Harris-Jones—reconnected with their alma mater to recount their accomplishments in public service as they have journeyed beyond the bricks.
 

Turning eyes toward the sky

While Rebekah Green worked toward earning her Bachelor of Science in Journalism in Strategic Communication at Ohio University, she served as a Voinovich Undergraduate Research Scholar under the guidance of Amista Lipot, director of external relations and strategic partnerships and executive director of the Mayors' Partnership for Progress. Using the skills she took away from this experience, Green soon found herself scooped up by Glassdoor, landing a corporate communications internship immediately after her graduation in 2022, and today works in Clearfield, Utah, as a communications associate for Northrop Grumman.

“I was really looking for ways to get involved after my freshman year, and I knew that I wanted an on-campus job,” Green said. “I felt like working with the Voinovich School was the perfect way to have an on-campus job while working in areas that I was really interested in exploring, such as public policy and legislative affairs, as well as learning where I wanted to work in communications.”

At Northrop Grumman, Green supports communications for the Aerospace Structures Business Unit. Her responsibilities include defining communications strategy, creating newsletters, writing editorials, editing proposals, planning events and copywriting. 

“When the opportunity at Northrop Grumman presented itself, I felt immediately connected to its mission,” Green said. “I have the honor of working with incredibly innovative individuals in their craft and get to tell the story about the work they do that supports our nation’s security and enables space exploration.” 

Green attributes her success working for Northrop Grumman to the hands-on, real-world learning approach the Voinovich School offered her during her time as a scholar. Green was given creative freedom and responsibility to brainstorm and direct promotional projects and commemorative events while contributing to other communication assignments. As a result, Green quickly matured into the professional she is today.

“During my time at the Voinovich School, I was continually encouraged to engage with people with diverse skills and backgrounds—including mayors, policy researchers, data scientists and more—in order to work toward a common goal of better supporting the residents of the region,” Green said. “Knowing how to effectively collaborate to achieve goals is immensely important, a skill that goes a long way in any organization.” 

One of Green’s most notable ventures with the Voinovich School was her involvement in planning the celebration of the Mayors’ Partnership’s 25-year anniversary, where she organized the gathering of local, state and federal representatives to acknowledge the mayors’ contributions to their communities and the meaningful partnership the organization harbors.

At Northrop Grumman, Green was able to apply what she learned from that experience in a similar situation where she worked to commemorate the 25-year anniversary of the Iuka, Mississippi manufacturing plant, bringing state and local officials, as well as educational partners together to recognize Northrop Grumman’s employees’ involvement in key programs over the past couple decades. 

Looking back on her time as a scholar, Green expressed a wealth of gratitude, not only for her strengthened understanding of her field but for the valuable relationships she fostered along the way.

“I found the Voinovich School to be a place driven by impact,” Green said. “Whether it was the work I was doing to expand broadband access and advocate for other policy priorities within southeast Ohio through the Mayors’ Partnership for Progress, or other programs involving sustainability and social impact, every person I met at the Voinovich School was on a mission to make a difference in our communities.”
 

Protecting the planet

For as long as Jeremy Phan can remember, he has always been passionate about animals. After earning his Bachelor of Science in Zoology from Michigan State University, Phan came to Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service to pursue a Master of Science in Environmental Studies (MSES). During his program, his research revolved around the study of two endangered primates, Delacour's langur and the Hatinh langur, and how their behavior varied across different enclosures.

“I think the Voinovich School gave me the opportunity to really make my own path and learn about different things I was very interested in,” Phan said. “Getting to do my thesis work on wildlife and getting to do my project on these endangered primates in Vietnam through the practicum option was a really nice setup and I don't know of many other programs that allow you to choose your own pathway like that.”

Phan learned about the Voinovich School and how he could fit his interests within his master’s curriculum when he met Dr. Nancy Stevens during a study abroad program in Uganda, where she had come to teach about primates. At the time, Phan was unsure which direction he wanted to take toward his dream of turning his love for animals into his career. Dr. Stevens connected him to a primate-keeping internship at the Endangered Primate Rescue Center in Ninh Bình, Vietnam, and later, drew Phan to the Voinovich School’s MSES program.

“Dr. Stevens definitely got me interested more in the conservation side of things and set me on my career path,” Phan said.

Following his internship in Vietnam, Phan worked at the Kansas City Zoo and then the Cincinnati Zoo as a zookeeper. His heart, however, remained across the world, and in 2018, he returned to Southeast Asia as the deputy director of the Lao Conservation Trust for Wildlife and assumed the role of director a year later.

While earning his master’s degree, Phan gained a deeper understanding of everyday people’s role in conservation. He learned how empowering people with knowledge about the interconnectedness of their environments and the role they play in promoting or destroying healthy ecosystems was the key in creating lasting impact in conservation. This knowledge was the essential base he needed to build his career upon. 

Today, Phan works to educate Laotians and the government on conservation efforts and best practices when handling wildlife. The Lao Conservation Trust for Wildlife also set up a wildlife hotline in Laos in connection with their own rescue center, which specifically rescues native animals, as well as the Free the Bears rescue center.

“Just knowing that I'm making at least a small difference in the world is my motivation,” Phan said. “Every person that comes to the center to visit, if one person takes away a good experience or one person learns something about wildlife, maybe they make a behavior change, you know? If we can change even one person, then hopefully that starts a ripple effect.”
 

Advocating for inclusive spaces

After beginning a career in the non-profit sector, India Harris-Jones found herself drawn to diversity, equity and inclusion education, focusing on one thing: driving positive cultural change. Harris-Jones earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in 2008 from Ohio State University and decided she wanted to establish herself as a professional before pursuing a higher degree. This decision allowed her to intertwine what she had learned from her working life with her master’s in public administration (MPA) program studies at Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service and further confirm her career goals.

“I could apply everything I learned in real time to my work and that's exactly why I went to grad school,” Harris-Jones said. “I went to grad school to improve my skills and grow in my work so I could be promoted. This school focused on real life issues and our projects could be applied in real time. One of my tasks at work was literally a project that we had at the same time at school. So because of that, I couldn't ask for a better experience.”

While earning her MPA, Harris-Jones continued to work as a prevention coordinator for the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, showing a commitment to the job that sparked her devotion to public service. There, she helped develop a skill-building training, The New Playbook: Standing Strong to Promote Non-Violence, which aims to engage men in the prevention of domestic and sexual violence by challenging common attitudes and behaviors that perpetuate the issue. The work was emotionally challenging, but Harris-Jones knew it was her passion to try and make the world a better place.

“I think what makes DEI work hard is when people take bits and pieces of what this work is and use it to frame a narrative that's not necessarily true,” Harris-Jones said. “I think one of the biggest lessons I learned at the Voinovich School was that there will never be a right answer when you are working with the public. You really have to do this work, knowing that whatever decision you make, it is the most valuable decision for the group of people in which you are targeting.”

Now, Harris-Jones calls the Washington, D.C. metro area her home, where she works for Rice Education Consulting (REdCon) as a DEI consultant and lead facilitator and for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) as manager of Health Equity and Diversity. In all the work she does, Harris-Jones asks herself how she can be the change that her younger self could have used.

“At its core, DEI is simply necessary for humans to feel included. In this work, there is no one group over together,” Harris-Jones said. “It's making sure that everyone has an equal sense of belonging and that they have representation of what they look like, what they believe in, who they love—all of that.”