Instructor
Faculty Advisor, We the People
Born and raised in Las Vegas, David Snyder overcame a difficult childhood and is committed to advocacy on behalf of those suffering political or economic injustice. Raised primarily by his grandmother in a low income neighborhood, Mr. Snyder has a firsthand understanding of the challenges faced by people that society tends to write off as a lost cause and knows the difference that education and mentoring can make in the lives of our precious children.
Mr. Snyder earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in Economics and a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2011. In addition to his studies, Mr. Snyder also worked as a Senior Ambassador at the UNLV Career Services Center where he helped hundreds of students write resumes, cover letters, and conduct job searches. He graduated as a member of the Golden Key International Honour Society.
Following his undergraduate education, Mr. Snyder began his graduate studies at UNLV as the Strategic Plan Graduate Research Assistant in the Political Science Department. In this capacity, Mr. Snyder conducted research on the entry of Chinese firms into Latin America, wage trends in various sectors of Latin American states, and issues relating to the Latino community in Nevada. His own research agenda in graduate school focused on the determinants of political corruption, natural resource economies, political violence and terrorism, international relations theory, and political philosophy. Mr. Snyder also served as the Political Science representative on the Graduate and Professional Student Association and lobbied against higher education budget cuts and a proposed funding formula that would have diverted resources to northern Nevada. Mr. Snyder also served on the Legal Committee in the Occupy Las Vegas movement and helped coordinate a protest march down the iconic Las Vegas Strip.
Upon completing his graduate studies, Mr. Snyder was employed by the Brookings Institution to serve as a Monitoring and Evaluation Researcher. The project was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and was managed by the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings. In this capacity, he got to watch a best practices economic development plan go from concept, to law, to implementation. Mr. Snyder sat in on board meetings of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, spoke with stakeholders throughout Nevada including: members of the governor’s cabinet, state legislators, city council members, regional development authority leaders, and many economic stakeholders. Additionally, Mr. Snyder traveled to the Rockefeller Foundation and the Brookings Institution to present his findings twice a year and collaborate with Brookings fellows and other researchers to synthesize our findings and refine our thinking on economic development.
While working for Brookings, Mr. Snyder also began working for the Clark County School District as an instructor at a low income high school. He has served as the Student Council Advisor, was nominated for First Year Teacher of the Year, and was nominated for First Year Student Council Advisor of the Year. He currently serves as the We the People advisor and takes an active role in mentoring troubled youth.