Madison native Semmi Pasha has found a way to join his passions of politics and numbers. In October 2007, he took a Senior Research Analyst position with the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) Department of Economics and Statistics.
“It’s the perfect mix of what I was doing before,” said Pasha. “I never got to do math on the campaign trail, but it’s something I did greatly enjoy and this actually combines both of them.”
Pasha, 30, studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison until 2003 where he first got a taste for numbers working in the math department before leaving to work in state politics. He managed Ray Allen’s 2007 Madison Mayoral bid and Leena Taylor’s successful 2004 race for Wisconsin State Senate, among other political work. In 2000, Pasha ran for the Dane County Board.
“That was not successful. But I learned a lot,” he recalled.
While growing up, Pasha also learned a lot about politics from his dad, Larry Pasha. The retired Madison Police officer, who ran for a seat on the city council in 2007, instilled in him an interest in politics and its process.
Now, Pasha has resumed his studies at UW-Madison, and is close to completing his degree in Economics and Statistics. He’s a member of Madison MAGNET, a network for young professionals, where he serves on the public policy committee.
At CUNA, Pasha said he enjoys “trying to figure out what is going to help the most people,” a tie to his mission in politics.
“In doing that, you need some sort of logic, some sort of data,” he said. “And that revolves around economics.”
It’s an interesting time to be a number cruncher, Pasha acknowledged, providing economic data to credit unions and the credit union industry.
