Vanessa Marie Booth (Political Science, The Lincy Institute, Brookings Mountain West) has been selected to receive the Thomas J. Watson Leadership Scholarship, which funds graduate study at Brown University. Admitted to the accelerated MPA program, Booth will be one of few students who receives the Watson Scholarship to not only fund her graduate studies but complete a research fellowship at one of Brown's 11 research centers. The scholarship is awarded to admitted students who demonstrate high achievements and great promise for the field of public affairs/service. 

Brown's MPA program is the Ivy League's only one-year Master in Public Affairs program, which is accelerated in nature and prepares students to be public policy leaders, analysts and advocates in government, politics, and the nonprofit, and private sectors, both in the U.S. and abroad. 

The recipient of numerous honors, Booth currently serves as the editor-In-chief for the UNLV Scarlet & Gray Free Press, UNLV's student newspaper and is graduating this spring as an Honors College student with a B.A. in political science and double minor in Brookings: public policy and journalism.