Emily Diaz-Melendez is pursuing a professional masters of science at The University of Texas at El Paso, concentrating on urban and regional planning and applied statistics. Originally from Pennsylvania, she graduated from Millersville University with her bachelor of arts in government and political affairs and minored in statistics and athletic coaching. During her graduate studies, she works as a research assistant in the Public Administration Department and has aided in faculty research on public-private partnerships and Round 1 Promise Zones. She has also worked on the certification process through the Sustainability Tools for Assessing and Rating (STAR) Communities for her hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania, which received a three-star rating. Emily has found her passion in K-12 education funding reform as well as urban development policy and hopes to use her skills in data collection and analysis to accurately guide policies to benefit these areas.