Marylis Fantoni had her first child one week before her final exams as a first-year MPA student in the BYU Marriott School of Business. Having been both a mother and an international student throughout her schooling, Fantoni says that her experiences have prepared her to connect and empathize with her students now as an assistant professor.
“I had always wanted to study at BYU,” Fantoni says, but she ended up attending the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in her home country of Brazil. Even up until she graduated, Fantoni thought about coming to Provo—eventually applying for the MPA program at BYU Marriott and moving to Utah.
Prior to starting the MPA program, Fantoni worked in the Rio de Janeiro mayor’s office; she even recalls telling her undergraduate friends outright that she’d never pursue academia. “Then I had the opportunity to work as a research assistant with Rob Christensen and Eva Witesman,” Fantoni says. “And that’s when I realized research is pretty cool.”
Her newfound passion inspired Fantoni to continue her education after graduating from BYU Marriott. She went to Indiana State University and earned a PhD in public management and policy analysis, which led her to “fall in love with research even more,” she says.
Her research interests include policy implementation as well as gender in public policy. She has researched barriers to reporting domestic violence and studied the effect of female public leaders on local, pro-women institutions. “I fell in love with uncovering something that is really exciting and finding research questions that I want to talk about—I could speak all day about my research,” she says. Currently, she is working with Assistant Professor Travis Ruddle on researching fraud in cash transfers for cities and citizens.
But Fantoni has responsibilities other than research. Because some semesters require more of her time on campus, Fantoni says she finds balance by spending more time with her children in lighter semesters. She says she's learned important lessons about time management—maximizing time while her children are napping to get ahead on her research projects or using the drive home from work to think through lesson plans.
“Learning how to balance being a present mom while also being a good professor and a good researcher is one of the key lessons I think I’m still learning,” she says, explaining that a big part of her identity is being a mother of three.
“I’m a foreigner, I’m a woman, and I have children,” she says. “I think that intersectionality helps me to connect with certain students.” She empathizes with international students who are working through visa processes and language barriers and with student mothers trying to balance school and family. “Being able to connect with students on a personal level is something that, to me, is really precious and even sacred,” she explains.
“I have a testimony that the role I play here goes beyond teaching statistics. My role here is more about building a Christlike community and helping students flourish,” Fantoni says. “Being a part of that really is a dream come true for me.”