Psychology graduate student interested in public policy.

[geo]

I am new to the boards. I've been reading (a lot of) posts, and it has been really helpful so far.

I want to inquire about how to transition into public policy. I'm a doctoral student in clinical psychology and will be defending my dissertation soon (next 2-3 months). However, I have developed a strong interest in public policy work, primarily healthcare and education policy. I have worked as a grad student in a variety of public institutions such as the court system, charter schools, and state and federal hospitals. Plus, I was involved with the American Psychological Association on the policy side as a grad student. Outside of grad school requirements, I worked on a political campaign. However, my grad school research was on health disparities, not on policy initiatives or implications.

What I am wondering is how feasible is it to transition from psychology to public policy? Ideally, I would like to work on Capital Hill as a legislative assistant on education and/or healthcare policy, but I am open to other policy issues. I am also willing to do policy work at a non-profit or think tank. I am concerned that since my degree is in psychology and not public policy that I will not be able to transition as smoothly or quickly. What other experiences should I get? Internships in congressional offices or the White House? Other internships? I am not interested in going back to school for another degree. I want to market my current and past experiences, and if needed, do another internship to switch into policy work. I'm just not sure of how to craft a route to get into policy work. Any suggestions or advice would be helpful.

[ZacharyObama]

Well it sounds like to some extent you're already doing pubic policy unless I misunderstand what you mean by "health disparities." I would say that there's basically two types of public policy work: practicing (administration) and policy (think-tank). I wouldn't be too concerned that your degree is not in "public policy" in terms of job interviews. It would appear that you've decided that you don't want to enter the academic job market and want to be in some sort of service to the public. Internships in political offices/the White House etc. aren't really the way to get a job for someone with a PhD. Going based off of your apparent interest in "health disparities" it would seem that you might want to look at county and state social systems (and related advocacy organizations).

I hope that was helpful. Welcome (this board needs more emoticons!)

[geo]

Well it sounds like to some extent you're already doing pubic policy unless I misunderstand what you mean by "health disparities." I would say that there's basically two types of public policy work: practicing (administration) and policy (think-tank). I wouldn't be too concerned that your degree is not in "public policy" in terms of job interviews. It would appear that you've decided that you don't want to enter the academic job market and want to be in some sort of service to the public. Internships in political offices/the White House etc. aren't really the way to get a job for someone with a PhD. Going based off of your apparent interest in "health disparities" it would seem that you might want to look at county and state social systems (and related advocacy organizations).

I hope that was helpful. Welcome (this board needs more emoticons!)

Thank you so much for replying. This has answered a lot of questions for me and help me better understand the field. Yes, the type of policy work that I am interested in is the policy/think-tank side. To clarify my health disparities research, it was more about the psychological disparities seen among ethnic groups, such as chronic stress having a larger impact on hypertension in African-Americans. When you said look into county and state social systems, can you provide concrete examples of such systems?I want to make sure I am understanding your reply.

Edited December 11, 2012 by geo

[ZacharyObama]

You're welcome. I mean like city/county/states employ psychologists for institutions like child services, mental health services, prisons, schools, healthcare etc - but it sounds like you're not really looking to *do psychology* (clinical psychology, psychiatric social work (LA County is hiring - habla espagnol? lol) but rather *to study* its application (program/policy analyst). I think you might get a lot more specifics about different think-tank/advocacy type organizations in the Social Work and Public Health boards.

http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/59-public-health/

http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/65-social-work/

Good luck.

[geo]

Thank you! I will check out both of those boards.