Brad Hales found his perfect match online. But it wasn’t a dating site he was perusing; it was BYU Marriott’s MPA site. “As soon as I looked at the website, I knew an MPA was the degree for me,” he recalls.
At the time, Hales was studying communicative disorders at Utah State University (USU) to become a speech therapist, a profession that had piqued his interest during elementary school when he’d worked with a therapist to overcome a stutter. As Hales progressed in his undergraduate program, however, he couldn’t ignore the unsettling feeling he had about continuing in the field. His professional trajectory changed soon after he joined Friends of the Elderly, a USU club that partnered with various nonprofits.
The positive experience he had with nonprofit organizations, coupled with growing uncertainty about his major, prompted Hales to consider a new career path. “I asked a mentor about possible graduate programs related to nonprofits,” he recalls. “She highly recommended the Romney Institute’s MPA program.”
Upon graduation in 2006, Hales spent five years at BYU Marriott as an administrator in the Ballard Center for Social Impact. He then spent six years in various data and administrative positions at BYU–Idaho before moving to BYU–Pathway Worldwide in 2018.
As a data and planning manager for BYU–Pathway Worldwide, Hales now creates forecasting models, assists with enrollment strategy, and works directly with the vice president over enrollment.
“I took a few quantitative classes while at BYU, but forecasting student enrollment in BYU–Pathway’s fast-paced and quickly changing environment has been a challenge,” he says. “It’s also been rewarding to see how we have planned for and served so many students around the world.”
Hales and his wife, Rachel, have five children, and the family seeks out volunteer opportunities everyone can participate in. In his younger years, Hales participated in humanitarian work in many places—from Syria to Haiti. “Since having a family, we have kept things more local by visiting care centers, cleaning cemeteries, delivering food to food banks, and providing supplies for Pakistani schools.”
Hales says that while he fell in love with service during his undergraduate years, it was the MPA program that taught him how to translate that desire into a career. “Working at BYU Marriott also taught me how to make a real impact in the lives of others,” he says. “It provided a foundation that has guided me all along the way.”
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Written by Emily Edmonds
This article was highlighted in the Alumni News section of Marriott Alumni Magazine's summer 2024 edition.
