Master of Public Administration (MPA)
Kaitlyn Mills (Augusta, GA) is a recent graduate of Agnes Scott College with a degree in history and minors in Music and Educational Studies. Kaitlyn’s historical research has examined the origins of African American public education in the state of Georgia and the historic preservation of church history within the Black community of Decatur, GA. In the field of education, Kaitlyn has produced collaborative research on Universal Design for Learning and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on post-secondary students with disabilities. Additionally, she has conducted comparative studies on the role of educational finance and administration models on post-disaster recovery in the United States, Indonesia, and Japan.
During her time at Agnes Scott College, she also served as a tutor and teaching assistant in the Center for Writing and Speaking, as well as Community Service Coordinator for Fine Arts Education and Veterans Affairs in the Hudson Center for Leadership and Service. Kaitlyn was also active in the arts scene as a performing soloist in Agnes Scott’s Studio Dance Theatre Company, a member of the Collegiate Chorale, and a soprano recitalist for the Department of Music. She has received accolades for her leadership in the arts and academics, including, but not limited to: Phi Beta Kappa, Nannette Hopkins Musical Performance Scholarship, Jessica Marie Berry Award for Educational Studies, and the Michael J. Brown Prize for Outstanding Historical Studies.
Prior to attending Agnes Scott College, Kaitlyn began her career in public service at an early age, serving as a K-12 student representative for the Richmond County Board of Education Student Advisory Council and the county’s Social Studies Curriculum Advisory Council. In 2015, she founded Reaching Our Society Through the Arts (ROSTA) as a community service project to foster partnerships between schools and community partners, to showcase the positive effects of fine arts on academics, and to supplement arts integration programs that emerged after many were discontinued or downsized. Since its founding, ROSTA has served over 300 Richmond County students annually by partnering with nonprofits to provide this fun, high-energy program bursting with creativity.
In the summer of 2016, Kaitlyn was commissioned by Whole Life Ministries, a religious nonprofit that sponsored many ROSTA programs, to help create an internship program for young adults to develop skills that would make them marketable in multiple settings. She served as the program’s director in 2018 and 2019, where she oversaw the workings of the internship program– including hiring interns, budgeting, and fundraising.
Currently, Kaitlyn is pursuing a Master of Public Administration from the University of Georgia and plans to specialize in P-12 Educational Nonprofit Administration. She serves as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the SPIA Department of Public Administration and Policy, where she will extend her professional experience as an educator and researcher.
