Sharpening your skillsets for a successful career in science policy: How I moved from the bench to impact health and medicine in a different way, and you can too.
By Sarah Beachy, PhD, Roundtable and Forum Director at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (and previous AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow)
I always thought I would be a scientist, an investigator, a researcher, and a mentor. Now I am also a communicator, convener, facilitator, writer, problem-solver, team-builder, project manager, fund-raiser, and negotiator…but how did I get here? And how can you too?
No Matter Where You Go, There You Are
By Alicia Henn, PhD, MBA, Chief Scientific Officer at BioSpherix, Ltd.
I had a friend who described his career path as “blown through life sideways.” While I’d like to think that I’ve been more self-directed than that, opportunity came from unexpected directions.
Unique Combination of Training Leads to a Unique Career Opportunity
By Matt Kennedy, PhD, Associate Director Molecular Virology at Oncorus and UR Alumnus
As I progressed through grad school and my postdoctoral training, I became both engrossed and inspired by my basic research, but there was always a lingering thought that I had diverged from my original intention: production of therapeutics for unmet human disease. This therapeutic direction had always been there, and as I considered the immediacy of the impact of my work, I gave serious consideration to industry scientist jobs in fast moving startups / small biotechs where I could directly contribute to new medicines.
How Being Open to Change Can Lead to an Unexpected Place: Teaching at a Community College
By Teresa Sukiennicki, PhD, Associate Professor at Genesee Community College
Had you asked me long ago what I would be doing today, never in a million years would this somewhat introverted nerd have said that I would be living east of the Rockies and teaching at a community college. Life, however, sometimes leads you down unexpected paths, and I am happy that it has brought me to where I am now.
Sharing the URBEST Mission With Popular Media
News Article by Tracey Baas, URBEST Executive Director
I was offered the opportunity to be interviewed by a journalist from U.S. News & World Report about the topic What You Can Do With a Biology Degree. She was OK with the idea that I worked primarily with PhD graduate students, not undergrads, whose fields were not only biology but a variety of biomedical programs. Although the journalist and I weren’t able to schedule a phone interview, she let me provide some ideas and talking points through email for her article. When I first started reading her piece, imposter syndrome hit me, but then I let it go. I realized I did a pretty good job of sharing the mission of the URBEST program, after four years of practice.