Home>Eamon Drumm, Class of 2022
01.02.2023
Eamon Drumm, Class of 2022
Can you describe your academic and professional background before the MPA?
I was born in the United States but have been living in France since 2010. My undergraduate degree is in politics and urban planning from the University of Virginia, and I also have a master’s degree in geography and land-use planning from the Université Paris-Sorbonne. I initially worked as a consultant for a few different international organizations. Then I had a job for about seven years in the energy industry focused on urban energy efficiency and "smart city" projects. I wanted to transition back to international organizations or an NGO. When I started the MPA, I was a few months into a consultancy contract at the UNESCO World Heritage Centre.
You graduated last spring. What is your current professional situation? What are its main features?
I still live in Paris, where I manage a team at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, an NGO mandated by the UN Secretariat General and led by Jeffrey Sachs. We conduct and publish research about how national and local governments are doing on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. I supervise a team of economists, data scientists, and developers who work on data visualization and policy analysis.
What were the contributions of your training to the function that you hold today?
I got the job thanks to my experience, but also because I did my MPA policy project with the OECD on policy coherence for sustainable development. My supervisor had previously worked at the OECD on similar topics. On a day-to-day basis, some of the courses I took at Sciences Po on R and Python for policy analysis are very useful in my work.
Why would you recommend the MPA to other young professionals?
Yes. In addition to the MPA curriculum, I would recommend they take advantage of the school’s classes in French (if they can) and on those on data (R/Stata/Python), which are essential if they want to work on policy issues at international organizations or think tanks. They should also seek internships or do their policy project in an organization where they would like to work after, since Sciences Po has very good connections to many of the French and European ones.
