Alexa Beeson

Current position and employer: Research Associate at University of Chicago, Health Care Programs Department at NORC

Hometown: Greenwich, CT

Current City: Chicago, IL

Why did you choose McCourt? I chose to come to McCourt because of the multidisciplinary curriculum, the wide range of policy interests students have, the flexibility to take electives outside of a specific policy area, the faculty with research interests in health policy, the strong alumni community McCourt (and Georgetown more broadly) has, and its location in DC.

What professional/ work experience did you have prior to coming to McCourt? Before coming to McCourt, I served a year with AmeriCorps as a VISTA at a non-profit pharmacy in St. Louis, MO. There, I helped mission-align some of their programs and helped make their workflows more efficient and sustainable. I also helped lead an opioid addiction treatment workgroup with stakeholders across the community. During my undergraduate years, I also interned with NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri, helping them with national and state legislative tracking, and the National Consumers League (here in D.C.) as a health policy intern, writing blogs and legislative analyses.

What was the best part of your experience? The best part of my experience at McCourt has to be the interactions I’ve had with everyone in the student community. There is such an amazing diversity of interests, backgrounds, reasons for attending, and personalities at McCourt that make this one of the more unique student bodies I’ve seen. The diversity makes it so interesting to speak with other students, gain new perspectives, and even find new policies/programs to get excited about.

What internships did you have during your time at McCourt? Between my first and second years at McCourt, I interned full time at the Better Medicare Alliance as the Policy and Research Intern, and have continued part time since.

Student organization involvement while at McCourt: Women in Public Policy Initiative (WiPPI)

Undergraduate University, degree, and major: Washington University in St. Louis, Classics; Anthropology (Concentration: Global Health and Environment)

Hobbies/ Interests: Medicare/Medicaid; health equity; hiking; cycling; gardening; cooking; music

Reach out to me about: Moving to the DMV, working while being a full-time student, having a non-policy academic background