July 2026 Alumni Spotlight
Senior Policy Associate at Corporation for a Skilled Workforce and MPA alumna, Devin Corrigan
You’ve built a career spanning municipal government, startups, and consulting. What prompted those transitions, and how did each sector shape your professional growth?
Economic mobility has always been at the heart of my career. I believe that to build better workforce systems, you have to understand them from every angle. I joined the Mayor’s Office immediately after graduating from the Marxe School to learn how policy is implemented at scale. While driving change in a city like New York can feel like turning a massive ship, I’m incredibly proud of my team’s work, especially our pivot during the pandemic to launch a virtual SYEP with our partners. As that administration drew to a close, I joined an early-stage startup launching corporate apprenticeships. That experience really helped me work at pace and develop my bias for action. I eventually transitioned into public policy consulting to broaden my perspective beyond a single locality or model and focus on systemic change. Today, I’m helping communities nationwide navigate the complexities of building equitable, future-focused workforce systems.
How did your time in municipal government influence the way you approach problem-solving in other environments?
At the Mayor’s Office, I learned that relationships are the most important piece of policy infrastructure. You can have a perfect strategy on paper, but without deep trust between agencies, community partners, and employers, implementation will stall. I start problem-solving by understanding each stakeholder’s perspective and priorities to build consensus and move the work forward.
What skills or experiences have been most transferable across government, startup, and consulting roles?”
The two most transferable skills I’ve carried through each role are operationalizing ambiguity and user-centered policy design. In government and consulting, you are often handed a high-level goal without a roadmap. My time in the startup world taught me to turn those vague, complex visions into actionable, iterative steps so that big ideas don’t get stuck in the conceptual phase but actually move toward implementation.
Regardless of the sector, I’ve learned that the most effective systems are designed with the end-user in mind. By centering the lived experiences of jobseekers and employers, you create policies that are not only more equitable but also far more efficient. I ask, ‘Does this process make it easier for a person to access a better life?’ If it doesn’t, the policy needs to be redesigned.
You recently began a research fellowship. Can you tell us about the research you’re working on?
I was awarded a McCloy Fellowship on Global Trends, which I pursued to broaden my international perspective and learn how other nations address the same workforce challenges we face in the U.S. My research compares how Germany and the United States are adapting their apprenticeship models to meet the needs of a rapidly changing economy. I’ll be heading to Germany this spring to meet with federal policymakers, employers, apprentices, instructors, and trade unions. I’m looking to surface transferable innovations, practical ways that both systems can be more flexible, prestigious, and accessible. Ultimately, I want to understand how we can leverage international best practices to build more resilient career pathways for American workers and ensure our domestic policies are informed by a global context.
Looking back, what were your favorite experiences at the Marxe School?
I completed my Capstone project with Dr. Carla Robbins, and I’m incredibly grateful for the rigor and thoughtfulness she brought to my research. As a graduate student, it was a rare and valuable experience to have someone so accomplished invest so much time in pushing me as a writer. The Capstone can be intimidating because of the level of independence it requires, but her guidance was instrumental in helping me find my footing. That experience empowered me to pursue additional independent research fellowships in my career.
