Science and Public Policy: Wendy Law

Wendy Law, Ph.D.

How did you choose your career? Was this an easy or hard process for you? If you struggled, how did you overcome these struggles?

My current career is not something to which I could have consciously steered myself because I had no idea these jobs existed when I was a high school, college, or graduate student. Often my career path has not been a direct route and it wasn't easy, but having good mentors who recognized my potential and being persistent in my search for interesting and challenging career options really helped. I gravitated towards science at an early age, especially after being inspired by Carl Sagan's Cosmos series on PBS. I had a vivid imagination and wanted to become an astronaut. Through it all, I think the things that helped me were my inquisitiveness, my willingness to advocate for myself in finding a path that was right for me, my networking skills, my luck in finding good mentors, and my desire to learn and to have a fulfilling job.

In high school I really enjoyed biology and had a really dynamic teacher. I pestered her with all kinds of questions that she could not answer about stuff like hermaphroditic fish, and she told me I should go do biology research in college so I could find out the answers to my questions. Up until then, I had never thought about research as a career. I wanted to make rockets and fly space shuttles! I had no idea how to navigate the college system since I was the first in my family to get a four-year degree. I relied on guidance counselors and teachers to give me recommendations of good schools.

Once I entered college I really vacillated between engineering and biology. Luckily there was a major called cybernetics in which I could do both. Also in my favor was my parents' support. They wanted me to study whatever was in my area(s) of interest, so there was no pressure to become an X or a Y. If you are in a "new" or interdisciplinary field like cybernetics, sometimes you have to educate people about your field. I graduated with a double major in cybernetics and psychology. When I interviewed for graduate school in molecular biology, one of the shortsighted faculty interviewer said, "You can't really hope to do graduate work in molecular biology with an undergraduate degree like psychology," without acknowledging my other degree or even asking about its relevance. (The cybernetics major is now the computational & systems biology major, an interdisciplinary major in life science, behavioral sciences, and the computational, control, communications, and information branches of engineering and computer sciences). In college I worked in a lab as a work-study student and found a great mentor in Dr. Christel Uittenbogaart, M.D. at UCLA. She thoughtfully advised me on graduate schools and trained me in cellular biology. To this day she is involved in helping to guide my career.

In graduate school, I was overwhelmed by all the labs and cool topics for thesis research projects. Everything sounded really interesting! In the end, I picked a lab based on its personality rather than the project. I felt that good relationships were harder to cement than my interest in any given project because I was open to many research topics. I probably should have given a little more thought to the project itself, but it's always hard to know which project(s) will be fruitful or not. My project branched off from a ten-year-old project in the lab which used to be the lab's focus, but the PI had moved on to other areas of research. If this happens to you, know that your PI does not have to be your only source of scientific advising especially if s/he is no longer activity working in that field. I was fortunate enough to have other experts at the same institution to help me look at my data. With lots of hours invested into a difficult project, I finally graduated and had multiple thesis advisors to thank for it.

I came to my current position as Director of Scientific Programs at the Marsha Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer Research because I had a series of really good mentors who recognized that my skill set could be used in many different ways and because I had many different interests which I cultivated over time through volunteering. After graduate school I did a postdoc in science education, then my first job was in science policy. After that, I was hired back into the lab to supervise biomarker discovery research in ovarian cancer before I came to my current position.

What kind of training, both formal and informal, did you receive to prepare you for your career? If applicable, how did you select where to attend graduate school? How did you choose your postdoc? How about any additional training? How did you choose what additonal training to pursue and how did you choose where to do it?

Working in a lab as an undergraduate was a great training experience for graduate school. It allowed me to test the waters to see if graduate school was something that I would want to pursue. In the lab, I learned to perform many cell biology techniques and to analyze data. I enjoyed it enough to want to go for the next step which was to apply to graduate school.
I applied to many prestigious graduate schools on the west and east coast by seeing where interesting papers were being published and on recommendations of mentors. I went on interviews at all of my top choices and selected a school where the students could easily answer my question, "What do you do for fun around here?" I eliminated schools where students looked stunned and at a loss for an answer because career-life balance is important to me. I didn't want to look back on my graduate school years and discover that I was neglecting the rest of my life. The graduate program from which I received my Ph.D. was the Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, jointly administered by the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

While I was in graduate school, I volunteered my time to the Science Education Partnership at the Hutchinson Center. It is a professional development program for secondary school teachers to learn the latest biotechnology techniques and about biomedical research by partnering the teachers with research scientists. The program is also a great learning opportunity for the scientists because they can learn how to teach from the teachers and by teaching non-researchers. I was a scientist mentor for two teachers who went on to do great things in the science education community locally and nationally.
Volunteering for the Science Education Partnership (SEP) led to my postdoctoral fellowship in science education. I was offered the postdoc position at SEP during my last year in graduate school. It was a tough decision to leave the bench for teaching, but that's what really excited me and I had an opportunity to do something unique. I wanted to use my knowledge of science to persuade lay people to be excited about science and to see the relevance of science in their everyday lives. A focus of my postdoc was to integrate bioethics into the curriculum that we built around timely topics such as genetically modified food and gene therapy. The curricula would be delivered in a one-day or week-long research immersion program to high school students at the Hutchinson Center. I received additional training in bioethics by taking classes at the University of Washington and at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics as well as many workshops on curriculum development.

In addition to helping people see the relevance of science in their everyday lives, I enjoy helping others into science careers especially if they started like me, with very little guidance or family history of higher degrees. I received training from the University of Pittsburgh's Survival Skills and Ethics Program which trains people responsible for training the next generation of scientists. Much of my training in this area also comes from talking with and learning from people who have been involved in mentoring for a long time.

How competitve and/or rigorous was the training for your career?

The Molecular and Cellular Biology Program from which I received my Ph.D. is highly competitive and admits only twenty students per year. The program is rigorous and provided me with a solid foundation of designing and critiquing scientific processes.

Postdocs in science education are relatively rare, so you have to seek out opportunities if your interests are at the intersection of science and education.

Training in soft skills like interpersonal communication, writing, and business etiquette is really something that you need to seek out unless your graduate or postdoc training is very progressive and includes these topics. There are workshops or books that can help you hone these skills, which are important in all aspects of career-building.

In general, how much did the training cost? Was the investment worth it?

My Ph.D. and postdoc training didn't "cost" me anything in dollars. I paid through my time in the lab and by living on NIH-scale stipends. The investment was definitely worth it because my training has opened doors to many career options.

How long did it take you to train? Was it shorter or longer than anticipated? If you had any setbacks, how did you deal with them?

My Ph.D. project took seven years, which was longer than anticipated because I had chosen a difficult project with data that was hard to interpret. I was determined to finish my project even when there were people telling me to quit with a master's degree. I found good mentors on my thesis committee who could see that I was determined to complete my Ph.D. and steered me to finding additional experts in my area of research. Things speeded up once I found advisors outside of the lab to help me interpret my data and to suggest additional experiments that would bring some clarity to my project.

My postdoctoral training was three years long which was not a surprise since that was the length of the grant on which I was supported. I would have stayed longer at SEP, but the research immersion program for high school students lost funding and I was forced to find a new job. While this was a temporary set back for my career, I was really disappointed and sad that our unique program would no longer be able to serve high school students and teachers.

What was the process like to apply for your first job after your training was over? Was it easy or difficult? How did you cope with any difficulties? Did that differ from subsequent jobs you've had?

My first job after my postdoc was in public science policy. I had applied to the AAAS Public Policy Fellowship program for positions at NIH in Bethesda, MD because I was interested in understanding how research priorities in the US are identified and funded and in helping legislators to understand the latest scientific issues. The selection process was tough (lots of written essays and an intimidating panel interview) and very competitive. I was offered a fellowship at NIH, but ultimately turned it down for personal reasons. That was a tough decision to turn down a great opportunity!

Networking was key to helping me secure my first job. My postdoc advisor, Dr. Nancy Hutchison, Ph.D. was an advocate for me and helped me to meet leaders at the Hutchinson Center. Ironically, I was hired to work with Dr. Lee Hartwell, Ph.D., who at the time was the President and Director of the Hutchinson Center, on a science policy initiative for the National Cancer Institute. Essentially, I was able train in science policy without leaving Seattle. It was a relatively easy process to get hired for this job after having gone through the AAAS Public Policy Fellowship selection process. However, it was nerve-wracking giving up the AAAS fellowship and not knowing if there would be in a job for me in Seattle.

What advice would you give to someone interested in following a similar career path?

I am truly a lucky person because my career path has been driven by my interests and by things that I enjoy doing. Often, I would volunteer to do something that I really enjoy, like teaching Biology 101 to non-scientific staff members, mentoring a student or a teacher, or spooling DNA with financial supporters being cultivated by the fundraising department. Later I'd reflect upon those volunteer experiences and realize that they were really learning and training experiences for a later phase in my career in which I got paid to do something that I had enjoyed doing for free earlier. The things that helped me were 1. having mentors who could recommend additional courses or training experiences to enhance my learning and who could introduce me to people who would later need an employee with my interests and skills and 2. being a lifelong learner and being curious about many things. Keep doing the things that you love and let it show that you love doing it! Maybe eventually someone will pay you to do it.

What would you have done differently in preparing for your career?

I would have sought help earlier from outside experts on my thesis project instead of trying to figure out everything on my own. The faculty at your institution, not just your thesis committee, are there to help you learn.

How much do you like what you do? Why? Is it what you imagined it would be? If not, how have you adapted?

I love what I do. I am currently the Director of Scientific Programs at the Marsha Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer Research. Our organization's mission is to save lives and reduce suffering through improved treatment, early detection, and prevention of ovarian cancer. I manage the portfolio of research grants that we award to researchers throughout the world, organize the annual Ovarian Cancer Research Symposium, and oversee the budget for the Ovarian Cancer Early Detection Screening Program. In total, I am responsible for a $1 million budget in scientific programs. In addition, I help fundraise and perform outreach functions to educate the public about ovarian cancer.

My colleagues, mainly development (fundraising) professionals, are really good at what they do and are willing to teach me how they do what they do. I am learning new things all the time which keeps me on my toes. Without a component of learning new skills and ideas, any job for me would be boring.

How do you achieve career-life balance? Is this easy or hard to do? How many hours do you typically work per week?

I typically limit myself to forty hours per week which is usually easy to do in my current position. There are sometimes evening and weekend work obligations, but my time is compensated accordingly. Limiting work time to work hours is important to me because I had a baby in February 2010, and I want very much to be involved in my child's development. That means I have to give up seeing friends and working out as much as I would like, but that's a sacrifice that I'm willing to make right now in order to spend time with my son.

In addition, I recently was accepted to the Leadership Tomorrow class for 2011. Remember that I'm a lifelong learner and enjoy new challenges? I'm continuing to learn and stretch myself even though time is becoming more valuable. This will be a true test of how I can effectively manage my work/professional life and still stay active in my family/personal life. It really helps to have a supportive partner who recognizes that continuous learning is really important to my growth and happiness.

What strategies have you figured out over time to help you succeed?

Networking, networking, networking! Did I mention networking? Every job I have ever had (even going back to the summer job at the community pool in junior high school) is due to me knowing someone who knows someone. That's not to say you can wait for jobs to come to you. You still have to be pro-active in your search, but talking to people (for advice or informational interviews), asking for their input, and getting your name out there really makes a difference in whether or not job offers come to you.

Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer! Did I mention volunteering? This is a great way to "try out" different skills and explore areas outside of your day job that may interest you. If it is something you enjoy, keep doing it. There's no guarantee that you will get a paying job in this field, but you will be "paid" with the satisfaction that you are doing something that you enjoy and you will probably learn to do it very well. I have volunteered as a crew member aboard a 101-foot historic wooden schooner named the Adventuress, chaired a committee dedicated to minority scientist recruitment and retention, helped articulate life science career ladders for the Workforce Development Council of Seattle–King County, and co-founded science enrichment activity hour at a local school for cancer patients. Whatever it is, there's a project out there that can speak to your interests and passions. If there isn't, start that project yourself! If you think you can't, you are planning and implementing a biomedical research project with experiments that have never been done before and asking scientific questions that have never been asked before. And you are doing this all on your own. You would use the same analytical-thinking skills — only for a slightly different purpose.

How do you see your field changing in the next 5–10 years?

Grantmaking will be around for a long time because cancer is a tough scientific problem and researchers will need funding to drive their projects. Grant portfolio managers and program officers are needed who can understand the science in order to interact with the researchers and who can also translate the successes of funded projects to potential donors to continue the cycle of grantmaking. Having a vision on grantmaking in the field of cancer in order to make the greatest impact is critical, especially when federal dollars are dwindling for research. More researchers will be turning to private foundations to fund their projects in the future.

Anything else you would like to share?

People who choose life science careers are smart, resourceful, and entrepreneurial. It takes this kind of person to strike out on his/her own and stake a claim on a specific scientific question with a given set of technical tools. Science is exciting because every time you produce a new piece of data, no one in the history of the world has ever seen or known that piece of knowledge before. Solving complex puzzles is fun, and solved biomedical puzzles in particular are useful to humanity. This is a great career!

However, if you don't enjoy it and you feel your calling is elsewhere, your skills will not be wasted doing something else that you truly enjoy and is fulfilling to you. Waking up in the morning and feeling good about going to work is worthy of your pursuit — whatever that career might be.