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What qualifies us?
In short, we have a unique blend of experience and skills that has uncovered key insights about success for PhDs.
We have both held professional positions wherein the explicit goal has been to apply scientific findings to build programs, inform interventions, deliver recommendations, or design products. Those roles, which have included policy research and reporting, data analysis, product development, entrepreneurship, and human capital management, have taught us how academic science is perceived by many non-scientific audiences and how to identify what potential customers or employers find compelling. In addition, we have worked for or with people who did not necessarily set out to hire a PhD, and so it has been necessary in many contexts to explain or demonstrate what advantages scientists can bring to job roles.
How did POA begin?
Over the last several years, many graduate students and professors have asked us for guidance on how to prepare graduate students to pursue careers outside of academia. We were asked, and we asked ourselves: Why do so many of the smart, hardworking, creative people who pursue PhD training have trouble finding fulfilling work in the non-academic world?
Being good social scientists, we obsessively analyzed the situation for underlying phenomena. We analyzed the situation through the lens of psychology – what mechanisms might explain why PhD training normally does not prepare students for non-academic work? Why do potential employers fail to see what social scientists can contribute to their team?
We combined this approach with our and our colleagues’ experiences bringing behavioral science to government and business applications. What do non-scientists understand about our skills? How can we make people understand the value that social sciences can add to policy, health care, and business settings?
Through this analysis we have identified many barriers that can stand in the way of PhD scientists finding and getting fulfilling, well-paying, non-academic careers. We have also gathered resources to help graduate students and PhDs prepare to overcome these barriers. Feedback from our trainees has helped us hone the material and has encouraged us that we have hit on some critically valuable insights. We believe that using our training as a professional development pursuit will help any social scientist-in-training prepare to enter, and be more successful in, the non-academic job market.
Biography
Ashleigh Gallagher
Ashleigh graduated from Wake Forest University's Psychology program, then earned her PhD in social psychology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She has spent over ten years at Wake Forest and UNG-Greensboro teaching, mentoring undergraduate students, directing UNCG's undergraduate psychology internship program and undergraduate advising, and serving as Director of Undergraduate Studies. She won the 2015-16 UNCG Psy Chi Teacher of the Year award.
Ashleigh spent four years working at the State of North Carolina on a team of social scientists and attorneys. The team conducted research that informed policy decisions about misdemeanor and felony convictions and sentencing. Her duties included communicating research findings and methodologies to a variety of audiences including attorneys, judges, and state lawmakers. In this role she often proposed, conducted, and presented psychology-informed data analysis projects to non-psychologist stakeholders.
Patrick Gallagher
Patrick graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro's Psychology program, then earned a Master's of Experimental Psychology from Wake Forest University and a PhD in Social Psychology from Duke University. He was awarded the 2009-2010 Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching in Duke's Graduate School. He is currently Sr. Director of Employee Experience at Partners Health Management.
Patrick spent two years as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in behavioral medicine at the Durham, NC VA, where he worked with health care providers to help patients build healthy habits. Patrick has since spent over ten years applying behavioral science in several roles in the financial services and healthcare industries, such as marketing, customer experience, corporate communications, leadership development, employee experience, and organizational development functions. These roles have almost universally included proposing projects or products based in psychology and persuasively explaining the value psychology could add. Patrick has regularly worked with high-level managers and C-suite executives, and has been involved in hiring employees with and without psychology backgrounds.