Gaining Practical Skills for the Policy Toolbox
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| Title: | Gaining Practical Skills for the Policy Toolbox | |
| Author: | Virginia Cox Delaney, PhD | |
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I was told during my first semester in graduate school that I should give up my one extracurricular activity, singing in a local choir, and focus entirely on my laboratory rotations and coursework. It was good advice at the time; Biochemistry did not come naturally to me and I struggled mightily to understand cryptic tryptic fragments and damned delta G’s. Ditching extracurriculars for my entire graduate career, however, would have been a mistake. I found rewarding experiences that helped prepare me to work in science policy outside of the lab.
As I’ve mentioned in my previous columns, communication skills, specifically being able to translate complex concepts to non-specialists, are critical for scientists working with non-scientist policy makers. Likewise, diplomacy and discretion are critical for working with difficult personalities and sensitive information. But how do you master these skills when your professional and social circles are made up of other scientists? The key is to access non-scientists through extracurricular activities associated with your institution or in your community.
One way I accomplished this was to volunteer for the departmental retreat planning committee. Yes, it was primarily made up of faculty members, other graduate students and postdocs, but I learned more than I ever learned at the bench about diplomacy and understanding diverse points of view through working on that committee.
For instance, the students and postdocs didn’t like the location where the retreat was being held, so I naïvely suggested that we change venues. To the credit of the committee chair, he gave me some latitude to investigate other options. So a subset of the committee drove around the greater tri-state area checking out other potential retreat venues. Somewhere between the New Jersey shore resort whose heyday was sometime circa 1965 and the resort in the Poconos that looked like the set from Dirty Dancing I realized how much time and effort had gone into the selection of our current retreat venue that boasted clean rooms, tennis courts, a pool and softball fields. Sure it was a bit too corporate for a bunch of academics, but they had a sundae bar in the dining area!
The committee elected to stay at the more corporate location, and I attended the next retreat with a renewed appreciation for how much work and compromise had gone into planning the day and a half event. These lessons in team work and finding the middle ground have been invaluable as I’ve transitioned from the highly individualized world of the lab to the collaborative environment of science policy.
To develop better written communication skills, a classmate of mine volunteered with the Office of Public Affairs at our institution in the latter years of graduate school. Although she couldn’t be paid in dollars, she earned invaluable skills: working on a deadline, writing concise, descriptive prose, and interviewing scientists from the perspective of a member of the public rather than a colleague. Being able to write about the connection between basic biomedical research and the treatment of disease and health improvement made her competitive for a AAAS Mass Media Fellowship and helped her land her current position as a Public Information Officer at a major research institution.
As a student or postdoc you have a great deal of flexibility in your schedule and should consider volunteering with an institutional entity that will give you skills to pursue your next career steps.
In addition to gaining practical experience, you may want to improve your academic credentials. During a career in science policy, you’ll work with people who have degrees in public policy and administration, history and political science, just to name a few. If you’ve spent the last 10 years reading Nature, Cell and Science, as I had, you may want to pick up some more relevant periodicals to improve your knowledge of current events. The New York Times and Washington Post are available free online and you should be able to access the Wall Street Journal, The Economist and Roll Call through your university library.
If you are enrolled at an institution with a School of Public Policy, try to identify some courses that you could sit in on to learn a bit more in that field. Many schools have night classes; these would be best if you have the sort of advisor who complains when you’re not in the lab every minute of the day. I’ve also heard that professors in other departments are sympathetic to graduate students who want to simply audit a class they’re teaching, as long as there is space in the classroom. Making connections with public policy professors is also a good idea since they may have connections in DC policy circles which could lead to professional networking opportunities in the future.
In general, you should try to gain practical experience applicable to your future career goals whenever possible. Have a conversation about your desire to branch out with your advisor, a sympathetic faculty member or postdoc. They may have other ideas for organizations or committees you can join. Finding a group of similar-minded grad students can also be helpful in homing in on opportunities around your institution. |
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Virginia Cox Delaney, PhD holds a PhD in Molecular and Developmental Biology from Weill Medical College at Cornell University. She was a 2004-6 AAAS Diplomacy Fellow in the Bureau of Oceans, Environment and Science at the U.S. Department of State then she worked as a Program Officer at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in New York City. Currently, she is Project Manager at the Office of Research and Graduate Studies (ORGS), UC Office of the President. |
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Copyright, 2007, Virginia Cox Delaney, PhD Published with permission |
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