Brendan Burns ’15, Planning California’s Energy Future
Brendan Burns graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Vanderbilt in 2015 with a double major in Economics and Public Policy Studies. His senior capstone project examined data from Nashville’s Financial Empowerment Center to assess statistical associations related to participant dropout. Brendan worked for three years in health policy after graduating from Vanderbilt, including a stint as a Commissioner’s Fellow in Public Health for the State of Tennessee. After receiving a Master’s in public Affairs from Princeton in 2020, he moved to California, where he is currently a senior analyst for the California Public Utilities Commission. In that role Brendan plans for a future California electric system that remains reliable while reducing pollution.
“I didn’t enter Vanderbilt with an end goal of where I wanted to be,” he recounts. “I tried to just keep taking classes that interested me, which led me to pursuing the PPS major. The courses in the PPS program taught me how to work and allowed me to see, in class after class, that my interest in public service — specifically at the state and local level — was genuine. That understanding has helped me navigate professional opportunities early in my career.”