Science Policy Working Groups

PA Legislative Science Policy Fellowship

Deputy: Tala Azar

This working group is responsible for researching, designing, and launching of a state-level science policy fellowship to provide Pennsylvania state legislators with PhD-level science advice. This work includes coalition-building with various stakeholders from across the Commonwealth, including early career researchers in the science policy field, legislators, funders, and members of the public.

Members: Benjamin Sailors, Maeve Coughlan, Stefan Peterson, Tomy Granzier-Nakajima


Racial Justice

Deputy: Erin K. Reagan

The goal of the Racial Justice Working Group is to evaluate and provide recommendations for the improvement of institutional policies affecting the equity of STEM graduate programs at the University of Pennsylvania.

Members: Chris Pai, Adam Rayfield, Sonia Roberts, Steven Cheng, Divya Jain, Daniel Feshbach, Rebecca Somach, Matteo Akbarpour, Elana Pyfrom, Alex Maldonado-Lopez


Memos to Meetings Pipeline

Deputy: Walker Gosrich

The Memos to Meetings Pipeline exists to train early career researchers in how to research and write policy communications, facilitate their participation in the annual NSPN-JSPG Memo Competition, train them in how to communicate their findings to policymakers, and then support them in scheduling and carrying out meetings with federal and state legislators and their staff.

Members: Virginia Wardell, Steven Cheng, Erin K. Reagan, Brenna Shortal, Stefan Peterson, Hanna Roenfanz, Hersh Sanghvi, Katie Mossburg, Ariana Spentzos, Elana Varner, Gokul Iyer, Divya Jain, Karl Schmeckpeper, Mathieu Ouellet, Matt Malencia, Nima Leclerc, Sonia Roberts, Val Bromberg, Chris Choe, Rebecca Somach, Juliana Zhou


Legislative Meetings Workshop

Deputy: Hersh Sanghvi

This working group exists to design and execute an interactive workshop to train early career researchers at the University of Pennsylvania in how to schedule, prepare for, and carry out meetings with legislators and their staff at the federal and state level.

Members: Brenna Shortal, Katie Mossburg, Stephen Mell


Science Diplomacy Working Groups

United Nations

Deputy: Emre Guler

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The goal of this team is to design and implement a new Penn-sponsored certificate program providing Penn students from across the University with comprehensive training in science and technology policy and diplomacy.

Members:

SciPol/SciDip Certificate Program

Deputy: Alex Maldonado-Lopez


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Philippine Embassy

Deputy: Sofia Wawryzniak, Virginia Wardell


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SciDip Book Club

Deputy: Ana Defendini-Cortes


Science Communication Working Groups

The goal of the Blog working group is to provide early career researchers at Penn with the opportunity to apply their skills in science communication, writing, and editing to convey scientific topics to a lay audience in an engaging and accessible way through our online blog. Working group members collaborate as a team through selecting experts, interviewing, writing, and providing editorial support to each other.

Blog

Deputy: Sonia Roberts, Amanda Weiss


The Podcast working group exists to provide early career researchers at the University of Pennsylvania with the opportunity to create podcasts on a science topic of interest to them in order to develop and apply skills in communication, interviewing, and audio editing. Working group members work as a team to create engaging and dynamic podcast episodes to communicate complex scientific topics to a lay audience in an accessible way.

Podcast

Deputy: Julia Han Noll, Rebecca Somach


This working group is responsible for designing, planning, and carrying out the annual PSPDG SciComm Workshop Series, a 9-part, monthly series of workshops that bring in experts in various mediums and techniques for science communication to train early career researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. An optional certificate of completion is available to participants who complete a majority of optional take-home assignments and contribute to subsequent peer review following each workshop.

SciComm Workshop Series

Deputy: Julia Han Noll, Yuzhang Chen, James Gesualdi