By Meghan Doughty November 15, 2018
Hello! My name is Meghan Doughty and I am a new faculty member with the MPA program this year. I recently attended the Association for Public Policy and Management’s (APPAM) Annual Fall Research Conference on November 8-10, 2018 in Washington, DC. The theme of the conference was Evidence for Action: Encouraging Innovation and Improvement. I was a discussant on the panel “Contemporary Issues in Foster Care,” which featured papers on how the structure of federal foster care funding effects foster care outcomes and the effect of different structures of parent legal representation on the length of time children spend in foster care. The panel integrated cutting edge statistical modeling and pressing child welfare concerns.
The overall conference was focused on providing an evidence-base for the most pressing public policy questions; however, there were also panels focused on professional development. One panel, “Embedded Academic? The Benefits and Costs of Transitioning between Academia and Government,” included a roundtable discussion with academics and government works who had spent time in both the federal government and academia. I asked what advice they had for our students who may be debating between an academic or government career path. The panelists suggested students ask themselves three questions.
- Do you like to work in teams?
Government work is often accomplished in teams with multiple stakeholders, while academic work is often accomplished singularly or with a partner.
- Do you prioritize making the world a better place or finding out the truth?
Government workers don’t always have the leisure to explore policy questions and find out the truth and all its consequences, while academics have that leisure they don’t always have the ability to affect change based on that truth.
- How important is it for your contributions to be noticed?
Government workers rarely see their names attached to projects that they have worked on, while academics publish work with their names attached.
These questions should help Evergreen MPA students as they considered their careers post-MPA program. There are many career paths that one can take with an MPA degree that lead to fulfilling public service degrees and the APPAM conference showcased the contributions that academics, government workers and nonprofit practitioners are making to the field.