Wyatt Shafer is Prepared for Impact

The MPP student’s co-op experience put him into the action during a dramatic year in politics.

News > Wyatt Shafer

by Rebecca Moon Ruark

“It was a very tumultuous fall in the political world,” noted Wyatt Shafer, a master’s student in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities at Northeastern in Arlington. So it felt very good to be doing “important, timely, and critical research,” he said. For his semester-long co-op in the fall of 2025, the second-year Master of Public Policy (MPP) student teamed with Washington, D.C.,-based ENS Resources, a small public policy firm providing consulting and regulatory and legislative services. “When the government shuts down, there’s a lot of ‘reading the tea leaves’ to know if legislation is going to be pushed through,” Shafer explained. “I was doing critical research, and we had some nice successes on the advocacy side, too.”

Shafer spent his co-op diving into research and several in-depth projects for the firm’s mostly West Coast clients. Much of the work involved translating regulation and producing policy documents and communications for municipalities and other constituents dealing with water-related issues—”a little wildfire and a lot of groundwater management,” Shafer said. For his part, he delved into states’ water rights around the Colorado River; the movement of water resources to Los Angeles, post-wildfires; and a focus on PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) and other “forever chemicals” in groundwater systems, among additional research areas. Having prepared several policy briefs over the semester, the experience was “hands-on and action-packed,” he said. What’s more, he found mentors among his colleagues, who were happy to share networking and professional advice the master’s candidate plans to use as he moves forward in his career.

Shafer appreciates the College of Social Sciences and Humanities’ signature focus on service learning. Or, what he calls, “impacting your community by doing something that’s meaningful—and learning a lot while doing it.” Nearing graduation, he’s on the lookout for work that’s “impactful.” He said, “I don’t just want to push numbers around on a spreadsheet. I want to do something with my degree.” Whether he goes to work for the federal government, a nongovernmental organization (NGO), or other entity, “the skillset I’ve gained through my education is applicable anywhere,” he said.

A Balancing Act

A Baltimore native, Shafer went to the College of Wooster, in Ohio, where he earned his undergraduate degree in political science with a focus on comparative politics, which involved “a lot of research methods,” he said. His minor in data and statistics taught him how to use data and coding to tell a story. For his undergraduate thesis, he told the story of the ongoing water crisis in India, leading him to the world of water policy, which continues to hold his interest today. Having worked in business development for several years after undergrad, Shafer felt that earning a master’s degree was “the next best step” and one that could set him up for a fulfilling career as a policy analyst.

It’s a College of Wooster tradition to present
students with a Tootsie Roll when their senior
capstone project is completed.

With a desire to move back to the Washington, D.C., area, his graduate program search led him to Northeastern in Arlington’s MPP program, “a wonderful opportunity.” A move to Boston for his partner’s law school education meant Shafer went remote for his first year of the MPP program.

The biggest challenge for the working professional? “The work-life balance,” he said. He credits Etai Mizrav, assistant teaching professor and Arlington MPA/MPP coordinator, for a smooth process upon his return to in-person learning in 2025. In addition to Shafer’s “great” coursework, he counts the program’s networking events, which invite alumni and industry professionals to campus to talk about career change and hiring, among the most beneficial aspects. “Working full-time and being a student is never easy, but Northeastern has been very good about supporting me,” he said.

From Promise to Policy

Now in his last semester of the MPP program, Shafer is doing his capstone project for Geographical Information Systems with community partner Pact, a global NGO with experience in more than 60 countries around the world. Along with two other students, his group is working to redefine ROI (return on investment) methodology for programming—in light of recent deep cuts to foreign aid by the federal government. The work will involve background research and theory crafting, a little out of Shafer’s “comfort zone,” he said, but he’s excited for it. “I was surprised to find out that the capstone is more like a work placement, so not so different from the co-op,” he said. “It promises to be a great experience to produce a consulting product I can use for my portfolio.”

Looking forward? Shafer’s research and experience have focused on climate and environmental issues, as well as utilities and other public goods policy. Ideally, he’d like to work in the environmental space, a space he’s passionate about and “one of the more pressing issues for our future,” he said. (Even if it sometimes sounds a little “dismal,” he added.) His work on West Coast water policy has broad applications, with California a bellwether for the rest of the U.S. in the environmental policy arena. Then there’s the countrywide AI boom and its resulting data centers, which require vast amounts of water for cooling, and pose environmental—and policy—issues from coast to coast.

“It would be cool to be working in a program space,” he said, “not just advocating for legislative change, but applying meaningful policy at the end of the day.”