Bryan McMaster

• Grand challenge: Climate action

Hello, my name is Bryan McMaster, and I am a first-year graduate student within the MPS-Natural Resources Management department. My career has been spent working in public service. I began my professional journey in the military, serving in the Marine Corps as an infantryman. During that time, I deployed to Afghanistan three times, and during this time I formed many of my views on public service and global development.

After the military, I became a firefighter/paramedic serving my local community for the past eight years; during that time, I provided care for the critically sick and injured at the height of the Covid 19 pandemic. In 2024, I suffered an injury that forced me to make a career change. My heart had always longed for a career in conservation, and that led me to Cornell.