From New Haven to Capitol Hill: YSPH alum shares how Yale prepared him for public service

When Alexander Urry, MPH ’19, enrolled at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH), he was searching for flexibility. Trained as a biochemist at Occidental College, he had spent many long days in a lab studying parasites and preclinical therapies. But he craved a career that would bring him closer to people and have a more immediate and tangible impact. At YSPH, he found an interdisciplinary education that allowed him to explore health care management, policy, and community service all at once.

That foundation proved essential when Urry arrived in Washington, D.C. as a Winston Health Policy Fellow in August of 2019. He joined the office of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, advising on health, veterans, and nutrition issues. Today, he serves as Senior Policy Advisor to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, where he manages portfolios spanning health care, agriculture, nutrition, and the federal budget.

Looking back, Urry credits his health care management MPH with preparing him for the unexpected challenges of policy work. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was able to quickly brief senior leadership on epidemiology and vaccine science.

“I came into it with some understanding of basic epidemiology and rates of transmission and things like that,” Urry said during a recent return visit to YSPH as the special invited guest of Dean Megan L. Ranney, MD, MPH. “That really served me well to be able to go to briefings by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and actually understand what some of these smart doctors were talking about and then to be able to convey that to my boss.”

Urry spoke to Dean Ranney about his time at YSPH and experiences in Washington, D.C. on September 11 as part of the Dean’s Leaders in Public Health Speakers Series.

During the hour-long discussion, Urry said his time at YSPH also gave him an appreciation for building bridges across disciplines and communities. He volunteered at the HAVEN Free Clinic and Loaves and Fishes food pantry, took management courses at the School of Management, and even joined a School of Foreign Affairs trip to Israel and Palestine. “Yale…most embodies what public health is all about, bringing the walls down, not living in silos, and really trying to be interdisciplinary in our education and our experience.” he said.

Urry’s legislative work includes helping craft landmark drug pricing reforms that empowered Medicare officials to negotiate prescription costs — a policy years in the making. He describes it as an “arc” that began with a YSPH presentation on pharmaceutical competition and culminated in a law projected to save taxpayers billions.

“That Alex could quickly earn the trust of two U.S. House Democratic leaders is terrific and no surprise to me given his sharp intellect, strong political instincts, humility, and commitment to public service,” said YSPH Professor Shelley Geballe, JD ‘76, MPH ‘95, who nominated Urry for the prestigious Winston Fellowship, awarded to only two people nationally each year. Urry had taken Geballe’s HPM 555 Health Policy Practicum, during which he was placed with Connecticut State Comptroller Sean Scanlon.

Though Urry acknowledges the long hours and intensity of life on Capitol Hill, he urged current YSPH students to consider public service. “There's opportunity, if you're persistent enough,” he told the audience. Urry said fellowships, cold outreach, and simply showing up helped open doors for him in Washington.

And while the policy process can be grueling, Urry keeps it in perspective. “It's about people, at the end of the day. It's about our families, about our friends, that is what you just need to lean into,” he said. That, he emphasized, is what makes the work worth it.