ANDREA FONDULAS

Master of Science in PUBLIC and urban POLICY


Purpose-driven professional with rigorous public policy, client relations, and administrative experience. Expertise in policy analysis, stakeholder & constituent engagement, public speaking, rigorous research, writing policy briefs, innovative problem solving, presentations, and qualitative and quantitative data analysis. Known for hard work ethic and charisma. Extremely passionate about policy that strengthens our democracy, protects civil rights, and bolsters civic participation.

Key Competencies

  • Policy Memos & Reports

  • Research

  • Relationship Building

  • Writing Policy Briefs & Reports

  • Policy Recommendations

  • Problem Solving

  • Organization

  • Microsoft & Google Suite

  • Tableau and Airtable

  • Website Development

Policy Interests

  • Elections and Voting Rights

  • Labor Market Reforms

  • Macroeconomics

  • Racial Justice

  • Women's Rights

  • Consumer Protections

  • Closing the Wealth Gap

  • Civic Education & Messaging

  • Ending Citizen’s United

  • Good Government Operations

 Professional experience


  • NYC, NY

    Policy Analyst

    -Researched and drafted policy documents on key topics, including the New York Equal Rights ballot amendment, Democracy Vouchers, and technical components of the campaign finance program, such as qualifying thresholds.

    -Led agency-wide implementation efforts, including writing and managing the agency’s Language Access Implementation Plan, coordinating across internal stakeholders, and setting timelines.

    -Contributed to voter engagement initiatives by co-managing large scale voter registration drives at major sporting venues and naturalization ceremonies, editing text and phone bank scripts, and featuring in social media posts about elections.

  • NYC, NY

    Legislative and Communications Director

    -Proposed and developed legislation on women’s rights, domestic violence, menstrual equity, and racial reparations.

    -Collaborated with advocacy groups, secured co-sponsorship from council members, and worked with internal lawyers on legislative initiatives.

    -Wrote speeches, press releases, and social media content to promote initiatives.

  • Fairfield, CT

    Regional Field Organizer

    -Organized campaign events consisting of Congressman Jim Himes, constituents, volunteers, US Senators, and Connecticut candidates and incumbents for State Representatives, Senate, Governor, Secretary of State, and Comptroller while quickly making a positive impression on high-profile lawmakers and attendees.

    -Presented campaign updates and upcoming events to Democratic Town Committees for 11 towns in the district.

    -Implemented and executed multifaceted voter contact strategies and get-out-the-vote efforts for 15 additional campaigns resulting in several flipped competitive seats and holding incumbencies in nearly every race.

    -Recruited, managed, and trained new volunteers for field operations and events and directly communicated with voters through canvassing, phone banking, texting, voter registration, and constituency mobilization.

  • Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney

    Washington, DC

    Legislative Intern

    -Attended briefings and provided staff with succinct and informative memos to inform policy decisions and legislation.

    -Produced policy and legislative research projects for Congressional staff to assist Congresswoman with policy positions and voting decisions.

    -Wrote letters and spoke to constituents about their legislative concerns and the policies of the Congresswoman.

  • New York, NY

    Executive Assistant

    -Handled all day-to-day operations for Co-Founder, such as meeting preparations and document management.

    -Served as the main point of contact for all affairs to Co-Founder executive.

    -Managed scheduling, travel, expense records, and confidential documents.

  • Human Nutrition Lab for Aging

    Boston, MA

    Staff Assistant

    -Handled administrative operations, such as onboarding new employees and editing research papers.

    -Assisted lead scientists' in publication submission for peer review.

  • Remote

    Market Research Assistant

    -Compiled and analyzed qualitative and quantitative research data regarding gender and race discrimination in the financial industry.

    -Assisted in the development of presentation materials for the client of the study.

  • Weston, MA

    Underwriter Assistant

    -Scheduled, organized, and led monthly debriefing meetings on updates to current processes, new business contracts, and customer and department goals.

    -Filled critical position to provide regional-level support for lead underwriter.

    -Formed relationships with brokers to create a consistent influx of new business.

  • Boston, MA

    Associate Underwriter for Personal Lines | 2015-2016

    -Strategized with lead underwriter to attract new business.

    -Scheduled meetings with prospective brokers and long-term clients to create new business accounts.

    -Made final decisions regarding accounts.

    Underwriting Analyst | 2013-2015

    -Processed administrative duties including data entry, ordering office supplies, and analyzing spreadsheets.

    -Created training materials and onboarded new employees.

    Customer Service Associate | 2012-2013

    -Helped customers navigate the complications of insurance matters and researched claims in company database for clients.

 Academic Experience


MASTER of science in PUBLIC and URBAN POLICY

MINOR in METHODS AND CONCEPTS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

Graduate Student leader Award Winner

The New School | New York City

September 2020-May 2022

I have two years of rigorous graduate academic experience which taught me the foundations of policy analysis and economic theory. I have recommended public policy to clients that are leaders in local, state, and federal government. These experiences prepared me for roles that entail succinct policy writing, extensive research, stakeholder engagement, high-pressure presentations, communication with high-level policymakers, coordinated teamwork, and creating realistic and innovative policy recommendations. I wrote my thesis on the New York City Board of Elections and the current state of election administration at the local, state, and national levels.

Final GPA: 3.95

Client-Based pUBLIC Policy Analysis

 

Thesis policy report

The State of Our Democracy:

Voting in New York City and the Board of Elections

Client:

The House of Representatives

  • Interviewed a dozen voting rights stakeholders and conducted granular literature and legislative research to produce 50-page report with policy strategies for Congress.

 
 

Urban Policy Analysis Lab

Performance-Based Management and Client Feedback Systems

Corporate Influence in New York City Real Estate and Zoning

Clients:

Administration of Child Services

New York City Council

  • Interviewed stakeholders, conducted extensive empirical research, produced policy reports, and presented policy strategies to public-facing clients.

SELECTED RESEARCH PAPERS :

 
 
  • Democracy & Election Administration

  • Behavioral Economic Nudges and Discrimination Against Women

  • Nurse Staff Shortages and Incentivizing Men into Nursing

  • Community Benefits Agreements for New York City Council

  • Performance-Based Management Systems for New York City Agency

  • Case Study of a Congressional Campaign

  • Case Study of Public Management in Canada’s Utility Services

  • Gentrification in Washington, DC

  • Constituent Response Systems for New York City Mayoral Agency

  • A-

    Students develop a framework for evidence-based decision-making in the context of policy and management. It is a case-based curriculum, where students learn cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis and how to write and present their findings in various formats.

  • A

    Provides students with an understanding of basic economic principles, beginning with the core concepts of demand and supply, markets, and competition. It helps students understand market failures and apply economic principles to policy problems such as the concentration of economic power and resources, social inequality, and protecting the environment. The course explicitly examines the role of government and the tools available to policy-makers to influence markets.

  • A

    Introduces students to several key elements of management in the public sector. Based in large part on the case method, the course explores such topics as budgeting, contracting out to nonprofit and for-profit agencies for service delivery, intergovernmental relations, accountability and performance-based management, strategic management, and leadership.

  • A

    Clients: New York City Council Progressive Caucus and Administration of Child Services

    An applied policy-analysis experience in which students work together in teams of four or five to resolve a policy issue for a public or nonprofit decision-maker. Over the course of the semester, students work on two different issues for different clients. At the end of each round, the client and two faculty members are briefed in an interactive setting, the team’s performance is assessed in terms of its analytic strength and policy relevance, and the team then prepares written analysis in response to the feedback. Students labor under realistic constraints of limited data, time, and resources to provide rigorous analysis to clients with decision-making responsibility. The goal is to build strong analytic skills and research logic in the service of rational decision-making.

  • A

    This advanced seminar provides an opportunity to design and execute an independent analytic project. The project—the professional decision report (PDR)—is an intensive, integrative experience that demonstrates students’ professional abilities, as well as the analytic skills they have acquired through graduate study. PDRs must address a policy or management issue facing a client, usually a government official or nonprofit executive, of the student's choosing. The final document should exhibit both a facility with technical and formal skills of analysis and an understanding of the political and operational dimensions that condition policy and management responses.

  • A

    Deals with how governments tax and spend. Students become familiar with the theoretical, empirical, and practical tools and methods used to create and analyze government budgets, as well as the flow of public resources. The course examines public revenues and expenditures within the context of fiscal federalism, in addition to budgeting and resource management and the social, economic, and political forces that shape the fiscal environment within which governments (particularly state and local governments) operate.

  • A

    Students will learn to write a “policy memo” for a policy maker at the city, state, or federal level. We will read classics on policy making, texts on extraordinary and ordinary fiscal and monetary policies, and up-to-date U.S. government documents pertaining to reopening the economy during the pandemic. We will take a deep dive into labor market dynamics. The class will understand economists’ decision-making about how to re-open the economy. We especially concentrate on how economists depend on virologists to figure out how to open the economy safely, with the least expense, and extracting the most productivity possible. Students will understand their role as economists. They will understand the rudiments of cost-benefit analysis and the students will know how to manipulate Excel spreadsheets.

  • In Progress.

    The field of Microeconomics has been dominated by the neoclassical approach. This course offers an alternative perspective to study the behaviors of individuals and firms. Instead of methodological individualism, we focus more on coordinations among individuals and firms to understand why sometimes coordination fails and what institutions can be designed to assist coordination success.

  • In Progress.

    The class explores, through a historical and comparative perspective, the connection between leading trends of economic theory in the 20th century and applied policy-making. Through this course students acquire a thorough understanding of the main schools in the 20th century history of political economy. Chiefly, students develop critical tools to appreciate the importance of economic rationales and academic enterprises in the making of the world we inhabit.

  • In Progress.

    This course engages the core assumptions, systems, and logics that give rise to the global and provides a historically and theoretically informed basis for the further study and practice of international affairs. The terms "global" and "globalization" are relative linguistic newcomers for signifying interrelated processes that span cultures and scales. Though all movement of peoples from the earliest times can be construed as having a global effect in the most literal sense, and empires have spanned distances and brought peoples into contact, the most common referent of the term globalization concerns late 20th and early 21st century socio-economic processes. Our task in this class is to explore the key trajectories of state and market formation from which our present era has emerged, replete with paradoxes and promises. We trace how the global today unfolds from the legacies of colonialism, the nation-state system, and capitalism and manifests itself in our changing relation to space and time. These legacies are our ineluctable inheritance, our daily reality, and the material we must work with and confront, especially for students and practitioners of international affairs.

University of Massachusetts | AMHERST, MA

September 2007-May 2011

bachelor of science in psychology

Publications


daily news op-ed

Are Nursing Stereotypes Hurting Our Healthcare?

February 7,2022

Attracting more men to the nursing profession could improve conditions and save live.

Nurse shortages have been a constant for decades. Burnout and risk levels surely are the prime culprits, but a major cause of the nursing shortage is effectively excluding half of the population from the talent pool. Only 11.5% of New York State’s nurses are men, right about in line with the national average of 12%. If more men became nurses, patient-to-nurse ratios could fall.

Competitive leadership programs


We lead women’s leadership Program

 
 

Washington, DC | 2022-2023

WeLead is a nonpartisan leadership training program run by American University's Women & Politics Institute. It’s aim is to increase the number of women working in politics and running for office.

Top Political Practitioners

Learn from and engage with elected officials and leading experts in campaign management, communications, fundraising, grassroots mobilization, polling, advertising, and digital media.

Professional Career Development

Sharpen leadership skills through interactive sessions on personal branding, resume building, effective mentorships, and public speaking. 

Record of Success

Engage with a network of 600 WeLead graduates. Alums occupy the halls of Congress, campaign war rooms, K Street offices, state legislatures, city councils, and corporate boardrooms across the country.  

Designed for Working Professionals

The competitive application process limits our class size to a select group of 30-40 accomplished post-graduates.

 
 
 

New leaders council fellowship

 
 

New York City| 2023

New Leaders Council provides cross-sector changemakers training and a national network of support – propelling alumni to create the country we aspire to be.

New Kind of Leader

NLC trains and connects the local changemakers who champion equity and fuel progress. We invest in those historically excluded from leadership pipelines, yet are best equipped to solve our nation’s most challenging issues.

New Approach to Leadership

Fellows practice a leaderful model in cohorts, where collaboration breaks down silos across identity, issue, and industry. Building connective infrastructure across perspectives that expand resources for collective action.

New Leaders Council

This new way of leading expands the capacity and support for equity movement leaders and systems change. NLC alumni are the driving force behind major cultural and electoral progress that takes years to build.

Developing New Leadership for Collective Impact 

NLC views leadership as a collaborative process, where individuals share their unique skills and expertise to solve problems together. This networked approach ensures that each of our Fellows are equipped to lead in any scenario. 

 

EXTRACurRICULARS


Student Senator

The New School | 2021-2022

Lead of Shared Governance Subcommittee Advocacy Committee

Coordinated "Confronting Imposter Syndrome" event. Managed event team, created aesthetically captivating marketing materials, recruited expert speakers to present, and handled budgetary duties

Analyzed data, prepared slide deck, and presented results of student survey to Advocacy Committee and proposed policy recommendations to enhance the student experience.

Met with The New School Provost, School of Public Engagement Dean, and various academic departments such as Student Success, COVID-19 Policy Committee, and Student Support Services to collaborate on initiatives to benefit students.

 

GIRLS ON THE RUN

Volunteer 5k Event Planner | 2017-2018

Organized race event with volunteer team for over 1,000 runners and their families.

Team lead of volunteer group overseeing and delegating tasks to volunteers. Created and coordinated pre and post-race activities for all attendees.

Distributed medals to race participants.

 

ANIMAL RESCUE LEAGUE

Volunteer Fundraiser 2015-2016

2016 Boston Marathon

Fundraised $8,000 in donations through coordinating events, planning auctions, and online platform fundraising.

Events were self-planned including venue outreach, asking local businesses for donation items to auction, guest lists, budget, and cash and digital donations.

Fundraiser Events Included: Dueling Piano Bar happy hour, Super Bowl pool, Auction of donated local business items, and dinner party.

Academic Policy Committee

The New School | 2021-2022

Student Representative

Proposes University academic policies that will benefit current and future students, such as faculty syllabus policies.

Votes on policies and provides feedback for proposed policies from other members.

Compels Academic Policy Committee to strengthen efforts to better communicate policies to student body, leading to committee forming the “Student Communication Working Group”.

 

League of Women’s Voters

Reproductive Rights Working Group | 2019

Strategized with team members on actions to provide free and accessible reproductive health care.

Contacted lawmakers in support of free reproductive healthcare in public locations.