Applying\u00a0<\/strong>planetary health science directly to inform policy and practice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nBefore joining PHA, I was a Policy Analyst in the Policy and Constituent Affairs Division of NOAA\u2019s National Ocean Service. As a Knauss Marine Policy Fellow, I was the primary advisor to the National Ocean Service (NOS) Director and the lead NOS program coordinator for science and policy issues pertaining to the Arctic, National Ocean Policy, and marine planning. I served as the Special Assistant to NOAA\u2019s Senior Arctic Advisor and as the program coordinator of NOAA\u2019s Arctic Team, supporting internal team functions and engagement with external partners, including the White House.\u00a0 I also served as a Georgetown Science in the Public Interest Fellow in the Public Affairs Office of the Ecological Society of America.<\/p>\n
How can one get into science policy?<\/strong><\/p>\nFirst off, what do you mean by \u201cscience policy\u201d? There are so many different flavors! This could mean working for federal or local science agencies, either in a research role where research is often much more targeted to inform management decisions or even in a government policy office, which often function to manage, communicate, and translate these research findings to external audiences. This could mean working for a legislative office, serving as a \u201cScience expert\u201d that handles a portfolio of science issues for a federal, state, or local politician. To me, this could even mean staying in academia and building research projects that are focused on questions co-developed with local governing bodies and resource managers to inform pertinent local and regional management decisions. The sky is the limit! So do your homework and think about what elements you\u2019re excited about when you say \u201cscience policy\u201d. And test the waters \u2013 the best way to have a sense of what elements are compelling to you is to do a short stint of exploration of the various ways to do \u201cpolicy\u201d.<\/p>\n
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How do I test the waters in science policy?<\/strong><\/p>\nMy biggest recommendation to anyone I talk to about exploring a path in science policy is to encourage their participation in a short term science fellowship. There are a plethora of ones out there, ranging from a short 5 weeks to even 2 years in length. Fellowships provide a safety net to explore a career path without deviating too far from an academic track if you haven\u2019t quite made up your mind yet. I did two fellowships \u2013 one at the Public Affairs Office of the Ecological Society of America while I was in undergrad and one at NOAA\u2019s National Ocean Service once I graduated with my PhD. My first fellowship was an important way to boost my resume and \u201cscience policy\u201d credentials as I wouldn\u2019t otherwise have much time in college or grad school to give to science policy engagements. For me, it was also important to do a fellowship after my PhD even though I was sure I didn\u2019t want to go back to academia \u2013 it allowed me to build job experience and skills that most employers seek in new hires.<\/p>\n
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How is program management related to your interests in policy?<\/strong><\/p>\nI loved my time working at NOAA \u2013 it is a place filled with smart, civil servants dedicated to better understanding and protecting our oceans, our planet\u2019s lifeblood. As a Fellow I had the unique opportunity to engage with some of NOAA\u2019s top leaders and observed a trend among those I admired most: they were exceptional program managers. Meaning that they understood how to set up and execute effective programs towards a set of defined objectives and understood how to manage their staff well in a way that minimized conflict and brought out their best work and personal growth. I also noted that government agencies are essentially a compilation of programs that (ideally) are managed in a synergistic way. After my Fellowship, I decided that in my next phase of professional development I wanted to push myself to further grow my own skills as a program manager.<\/p>\n
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So why did you get a PhD and how has it helped you in your current role?<\/strong><\/p>\nI guess I was an odd PhD student from the beginning \u2013 I was very up front with my potential advisors even before I started a graduate program that I was ultimately interested in getting into \u201cscience policy\u201d and not taking a traditional academic path. To me, having training as a PhD student was essential to have the credibility and training in\u00a0 the language and process of research science for any science \u201ctranslation\u201d or \u201cpolicy\u201d or \u201cmanagement\u201d position that I was interested in exploring down the line. Although the PhD kept me pretty preoccupied, I spent a lot of time in college and as much time as I could in graduate school taking additional communications training and seeking opportunities for science policy workshops and seminars, with the goal of beefing up my CV for a science policy fellowship.<\/p>\n
Finishing a PhD requires strong project management skills \u2013 we are forced through a process of strategic planning (even if we don\u2019t know what that means at the time), designing research objectives and associated methodology to disentangle a broader hypothesis while understanding that iteration is always a part of the process. As graduate students, some of us even get lucky enough to have smart understudies on which to practice our management skills. Getting a PhD most of all gave me the confidence that I had the skills to \u201cfigure it out\u201d when presented with a new problem or project that I had never done before. Having the inner confidence and skills in doing background research to build an operational plan to tackle a new project were all \u201cproject\/program management\u201d skills that I had to employ as a PhD student. So now when I am approached with a new task, I feel confident that I can look at examples of how others have done it in the past, modify and improve based on our own unique set of circumstances, and be patient with iteration as we operationalize a new project or program. I feel like I am using many of the same day-to-day skills that I employed as a PhD student now for a different application in my current role.<\/p>\n
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Thanks for listening! If you have other questions or reflections, I\u2019d love to hear them \u2013 my email is Amalia_almada@g.harvard.edu<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This post was written by lab alum Amalia Aruda Almada, Ph.D. Hi everyone! It\u2019s a pleasure to be a guest on Ann\u2019s fabulous blog. Ann and I go way back (see photo evidence above\u2026I\u2019m on the right, Ann\u2019s on the left) \u2013 Ann taught me how to hold my first pipette when I was a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":911,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions\/911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Ann](\"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/79\/2019\/06\/IMG_0863-1024x768.jpg\")
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