Michael Dillman completed his undergraduate education at the University of Utah in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. In 2021, he completed his Master’s in Public Administration and then jumped into the political science Ph.D. program at the University of Utah. Throughout his university experience, Dillman enriched his student life with Hinckley Institute involvement.

Dillman’s first introduction to the Hinckley Institute was through the Political Forums Series course. He then went on to incorporate four different Hinckley internships into his schedule during his time as a student.

In the Spring of 2016, he went to Washington, DC as a Hinckley intern with Creative Learning as the Deputy Editor. One of his favorite memories from this trip was having the chance to visit Thomas Jefferson's Monticello with all the D.C interns and staff. “My first Hinckley internship in DC opened my eyes to how many exciting internship and employment opportunities were out there for students like me,” Dillman says. “I remember how exciting it was to connect what I was learning at the U to the work I was doing on a daily basis.”

Dillman also participated in local politics through an internship with the Utah Democratic Party and the Doug Owens for Congress campaign as a regional field organizer. He then interned with the Utah Rivers Council Water Management as a policy coordinator and with Murray City as a legislative correspondent.

After graduation, Dillman continued to make a local impact. He worked at the Utah Division of Multicultural Affairs as a research fellow. In this position he “coordinated inter-agency research projects examining how COVID-19 affected marginalized communities and their access to critical public goods such as transportation.” As a graduate student, his paper, “COVID-19 and Public Transportation in Utah: Analyzing the Nexus of Virus Outbreaks, Public Policy, and Ridership,” was published in the Hinckley Journal of Politics in 2021. After completing his fellowship, Dillman returned to the University of Utah to begin his Ph.D. program and work as a graduate teaching assistant.

“The internship experiences I was lucky enough to have through the Hinckley helped me develop my professional skills and become more marketable to potential employers,” Dillman says. “Working through the editing process with the Hinckley Journal of Politics helped me learn more about the publishing/academic writing process and become a more competitive prospect for graduate school programs. Through internships, networking, research opportunities, and more, the Hinckley has been incredibly impactful on both my professional and academic career.”