Two O’Neill students selected for IU Indianapolis Elite 50 graduate students

Two O’Neill graduate students can count themselves among the cream of the crop at IU Indianapolis for 2025.

Each year, the Division of Student Affairs, IU Indianapolis Graduate School, Office of Academic Affairs, and the Graduate and Professional Student Government select 50 graduate and professional students who stand out due to their academic excellence, campus leadership, scholarly work, and community engagement.

This year, Halee Griffey and Evren Elliott made the cut.

“This was not something I was expecting at all,” Elliott admits. “I love what I do and pride myself on being a tenacious, hard worker, but I am surrounded by incredible peers throughout O’Neill.”

Griffey echoed those sentiments. She’s familiar with the surprise that comes along with being given such accolades. In 2022, she was named to the university’s list of Top 100 undergraduates. At the time, she was completing her bachelor’s degree in Sustainable Management and Policy. Now, she’s wrapping up her Master of Public Affairs in Environmental Policy and Sustainability.

“Delving deeper into topic areas and new questions during my MPA education helped me expand on the foundational knowledge I gained during my undergraduate career,” Griffey says. “Although wicked problems are complex with no one-size-fits-all solution, O’Neill’s MPA curriculum challenges students to identify, diagnose, and provide context-based, innovative solutions to issues that are currently facing our globalized world and reinforces the necessity of nuance when addressing real-world problems.”

Griffey is already putting those lessons to use in her current job as the first Climate and Resilience Manager for the city of Lafayette where she led the implementation of the Greater Lafayette Climate Action Plan.

For her, climate change—and the disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups—is one of the most pressing issues for current and future generations. That’s why she encourages students to continue their education and gain additional resources and training to become leaders in the field.

“With an MPA education, students can work to ensure equitable policies and projects are developed and implemented to help communities adapt to and mitigate a changing climate for a more sustainable, resilient future,” she explains.

Elliott also is working toward an impact on future generations, but his focus is on education and community resiliency.

“I believe providing equitable, accessible, and adaptable education to everyone can build a better future for us all,” he explains. “Our communities will always be learning and growing, and our students now and in the future deserve empowering, forward-thinking education and a space dedicated to that education that provides them with a sense of belonging.”

He chose to earn his degree from O’Neill because of the school’s national reputation and urban location centered in the state capital.

“As someone who has built a life and community here in Indianapolis over the past decade, there was no better place, in my opinion, to challenge myself further than here,” he says.

O’Neill’s Specialized Study concentration also appealed to Elliott. He’s one of 28 grad students enrolled in the track for the spring semester.

“The Specialized Study track has allowed me to explore my ranging interests in policy and find its center,” he explains. “I’ve been able to take courses outside of O’Neill that help shape my degree program and have allowed me a truly powerful and interdisciplinary course of study.”

He says his diverse coursework and other opportunities during his graduate education have empowered him to take on what he calls “life-changing work.”

He’s served as an Urban Leaders Fellow, worked on a policy team for the Indianapolis Public Schools’ school board, consulted for the city of Indianapolis, and more while at O’Neill. He currently works for the Policy Team at the National Center on Education and the Economy.

“I don’t believe I would have been able to pursue these opportunities without the skills I’ve gained from world-class educators and leaning on the resources provided to students,” he adds.

After graduation, Elliott plans to apply to a joint J.D. and Ph.D. education policy program while continuing his work in education policy. He wants to help create a student-centered approach to policy, one in which students are no longer viewed as just the recipients of change but are the ones to make that change happen.

“Collaborative education policy is vital in building a future that is responsive and resilient,” he stresses.

An emphasis on multisector collaboration is woven throughout all of O’Neill’s MPA courses. As O’Neill students, Elliott and Griffey both are working to make a difference and help communities become more resilient whether that’s through education or address climate change.

“As those privileged to receive access to higher education, it is our responsibility to serve as stewards to the planet and the people who will inherit the world after us,” Griffey adds.