Career resources
Additional career-oriented resources are listed on the SPI wiki.
What does a career in science policy look like?
Here are examples of MIT alumni who work in policy. Please contact us if you are interested in learning more about any of these careers!- David Auerbach, RAND
Previous Positions: Congressional Budget Office; Environmental Protection Agency; Intern, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy - Stacey Blau, Security Consulting
Previous Positions: Foreign service officer for the State Department (diplomat in Poland, Latvia, and Georgia) - Dwayne Breger, Director, Renewable and Alternative Energy Development, Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources
Previous Positions: Assistant Professor, Lafayette College; Senior Research Associate, University of Massachusetts, Amherst - Darren Dang, Director of Business Services, Orange County Department of Education
Previous Positions: Vice President, Karen Hill Scott and Company; Summer Associate, Deloitte Consulting; Account Executive, Acer Group & Wistron; Product Manager, Texas Instruments - Paul K. Davis, Principal Senior Researcher, RAND; Professor, Pardee RAND Graduate School
Previous Positions: Senior Executive, US Department of Defense - Vishal Doshi, Special Assistant to the Acting Under Secretary, Department of Defense
Previous Positions: Analyst, National Broadband Task Force, Federal Communications Commission; Confidential Assistant to the Federal CIO, White House Office of Management and Budget - Jerry Epstein, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Chemical, Biological, Nuclear, and Radiological Policy, Department of Homeland Security
Previous Positions: Director, Center for Science, Technology, and Security Policy, American Association for the Advancement of Science - Oliver Fritz, Deputy Director for Policy, Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy Plans and Programs US Defense Department
Previous Positions: Assistant Director of Strategic Planning, Air Force HQ - Christine Fry, Senior Policy Associate, Public Health Law & Policy
- Jeff Goodman, Chief of Environmental Management Division, Department of Agriculture
Previous Positions: Environmental policy consultant, EPA, Department of Energy and US Postal Service; Policy branch chief, EPA - Sharlina Hussain-Morgan, Diplomat/Foreign Service Officer, US State Department (Current Tour: Assistant Cultural Attache, US Embassy London)
- Carol E. Kessler, Department Chair for Nonproliferation and National Security, Brookhaven National Laboratory
Previous Positions: Director, Pacific Northwest Center for Global Security, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Deputy Director General, Nuclear Energy Agency, Organization for Economic Cooperation And Development; Senior Coordinator for Nuclear Safety, US State Department; Foreign Affairs Officer - Ellen Kim, Senior Advisor, Office of Investment and Innovation, US Small Business Administration
- Julia Kurnik, Director of Research and Policy, National Women's Business Council (federal government)
Previous Positions: Political Staff, Outreach to Women, Educators, Child Advocates, Obama for America Campaign (Obama's primary campaign); Regional Field Director, Campaign for Change (Obama's general election campaign) - Terry Langendoen, Expert, Robust Intelligence Program, Division of Information & Intelligent Systems, National Science Foundation
Previous Positions: Program Director, Linguistics Program, Division of Behavioral & Cognitive Science, National Science Foundation - Vivek Mohta, VP - Knowledge Base, Advanced Energy Economy
Previous Positions: Partner, Rhumb Line Energy LLC; Director - Energy Markets, Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources; Project Manager, Science and Technology Policy Institute; Legislative Fellow, Office of Congressman Adam Schiff; Science and Technology Policy Fellow, National Academy of Sciences - Sydne Newberry
Research Communications Analyst; Medical Editor for the Southern CA Evidence-Based Practice Center, RAND; Independent scientific editor, writer, consultant
Previous Positions: Consultant, Food and Nutrition Board, National Academy of Sciences; Instructor, Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA School of Public Health; Principal Public Administration Analyst/Project Manager, Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA School of Public Health and Center for Human Nutrition; Report Review Associate, Office of Report Review, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences; Staff (Project) Officer, Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences; Assistant Clinical Professor and Project Manager, Dept. of Family Medicine, Wright State Univ.; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Dept. of Human Development, MacGregor School of Antioch University - Mark M. Pickrell, Section Head, SGTS/TAU, International Atomic Energy Agency
- Michael Pulichino, Policy Officer - Economic Analysis, European Commission DG Enterprise and Industry
- Ruben Rodrigues, Attorney, Foley & Lardner LLP
Previous Positions: Electronic Frontier Foundation (advocacy group focused on digital rights); Massachusetts Governor's Office of Legal Counsel - Alan R. Rosenfield, Energy Specialist, League of Women Voters of Ohio
Previous Positions: Radiation Protection Specialist, League of Women Voters of Ohio; Radiation Advisory Council, Ohio Department of Health - Herb Selesnick, Organizational Consultant, Sterling & Selesnick, Inc. - for National Institutes of Health, American Society for Microbiology, Protected Species Branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northeast Fisheries Science Center
- Bruce P. Strauss, Office of High Energy Physics, US Department of Energy
- Frank A. Tapparo, Adjunct Research Staff Member, Institute for Defense Analyses
Previous Positions: Senior Fellow, Logistics Management Institute; Division Director, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Program Analysis and Evaluation (now Cost Analysis and Program Evaluation) - Robin M. Wagner, Chief, Statistical Analysis and Reporting Branch, Division of Information Services
Office of Research Information Systems, Office of Extramural Research/Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health
Previous Positions: Associate Director for Research Planning and Evaluation, Office of Public Health Research, Office of the Chief Science Officer, Office of the Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Deputy Associate Administrator for Science, Office of the Associate Administrator for Science (OAAS), Office of the Assistant Administrator, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry - Jerome Winston, Director and Associate of the Centre for Development and Research in Evaluation, International (Malaysia & Australia), Director of the Program for Public Sector Evaluation International (Australia)
Previous Positions: University teacher and researcher, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology - Julia Yoo, Research Economist, White House Council of Economic Advisers
- IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute Science Policy Fellowship Program
- AAAS Fellowship Programs
- Secretary's Honors Program at Department of Homeland Security
- Congressional Research Service Programs
- National Academies Fellowship Office
- Jefferson Science Fellowship
- Presidential Management Fellows Program
- Washington Internships for Students of Engineering
- White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Student Volunteer Program
- RAND Graduate Student Summer Associate Program
- HHS Innovation Fellowship
- Presidential Innovation Fellows
- An extensive list of fellowship and internship programs
Science Policy Internships & Fellowships:
Internships, Fellowships, and Other Work Experience Opportunities in the Federal Government
Last updated on: November 10, 2012Upcoming Events
Updated March 17, 2013
March 12-13, 2013
Congressional Visits Day
Washington, D.C.
March 18, 2013
SPI Monthly meeting
2-142
SPI business at 5:30 PM, discussion at 6 PM
March 22, 2013
Lunch with Dr. Bina Venkataraman
Director of Global Policy Initiatives, Broad Institute
12-1 pm
RSVP to spi-lunch@mit.edu for room location
April 8, 2013
SPI Monthly meeting
2-142
SPI business at 5:30 PM, discussion at 6 PM
May 13, 2013
SPI Monthly meeting
2-142
SPI business at 5:30 PM, discussion at 6 PM
Quick Links
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