Successfully Navigating Your PhD:
A Mentoring Workshop for 3rd + Year Women & Non-Binary PhD Students in Health Economics & Health Policy
Friday, September 29, 2023
9am to 3pm PST / 11 am to 5 pm CST / 12 pm to 6 pm EST
(On Zoom)
Organizers: Marika Cabral and Maya Rossin-Slater
With Support from AEA-CSWEP and ASHEcon
Deadline extended to June 15, 2023
Purpose
In most economics and economics-adjacent PhD programs, students will have completed their coursework and chosen their fields by the completion of their second year. Then, students face the daunting and exciting task of conducting their own independent research, sometimes for the first time in their lives. Students can feel overwhelmed and lost at this juncture in their studies, and may not always have access to support and resources that can help them navigate graduate school successfully and make the most out of their PhD experience.
Women and non-binary students, who are substantially under-represented in the profession and face a variety of systemic barriers (Goldin, 2013; Bayer & Rouse, 2016; Hengel, 2017; Mengel et al., 2017; Sarsons, 2017; Wu, 2017; Bayer & Wilcox, 2019; Lundberg & Stearns, 2019; Lundberg, 2020; Doleac, Hengel & Pancotti, 2021; Dupas et al., 2021), may be at a particular disadvantage, and may lack women/non-binary peers, role models, or mentors in their own departments and networks. They may therefore miss out on valuable “hidden curriculum” information and feel unsupported.
In health economics and health policy fields, a successful research career is often dependent on access to restricted administrative data sets (e.g., insurance claims data), ability to raise grant funding, interdisciplinary collaborations, and ability to publish in interdisciplinary outlets. Thus, the challenges faced by under-represented groups in the profession are compounded because these benefits and skills tend to be disseminated through networks and the “hidden curriculum”. The goal of this workshop is to begin to lower these barriers.
Details
This workshop series began in 2019, as a pilot for California-based women Economics PhD students, and was organized by Maya Rossin-Slater and hosted at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. Since then, workshops of this type have been occurring on an annual basis, with variants that target all fields in Economics and those that specifically focus on health economics and health policy (the latter being co-organized by Marika Cabral and Maya Rossin-Slater). The workshop is also inspired by the successful CeMENT workshop for female assistant professors in economics, which is hosted by the Committee for the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP) and the American Economic Association (AEA).
Women/non-binary Ph.D. students who will be in their 3rd or higher year of the PhD in fall 2023 in health economics or health policy are eligible to participate (no restrictions on geographic location). Students from under-represented minority (URM) backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.
Student participants will be organized into small groups based on shared research interests, and each group will be matched with 1-2 mentors. Mentors will be women/non-binary health economists in early stages of their careers – assistant professors in economics and health policy departments, as well as those employed outside academia (e.g., research think tanks, government positions, industry). The workshop will focus on a variety of issues, including generating research ideas, finding advisors, accessing data, collaboration and co-authorship, finding opportunities to present research and get feedback, grant writing, networking, mental health, and work-life balance. The workshop, which will be held virtually on Friday, September 29, 2023, will include panels, small group sessions, informal discussions, and other activities.
To Apply
We are no longer taking applications for this workshop.
Admission to Workshop
We hope to be able to accommodate as many students as we can with this workshop. Our slots are limited by the number of mentor volunteers that we have. If demand for the workshop exceeds supply of slots, then slots will be randomly allocated among all applicants who meet the workshop eligibility criteria.
Applicants will be notified about their admission status in early summer 2023.
Mentors are needed for a virtual workshop for 3rd+ year women and non-binary PhD students in health economics and health policy, to be held on Friday, September 29, 2023. This workshop is being organized by Marika Cabral and Maya Rossin-Slater, and sponsored by AEA's Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP) and ASHEcon. If you are health economist or health policy researcher with a PhD in economics, health policy, or a related field, identify as a woman or non-binary, and are interested in being a mentor, please fill out this form. Mentors from both within and outside academia are needed! Mentors will be asked to review 3-page research proposals from 4-5 students and provide feedback, and to participate virtually during the day of the workshop (to be held from approximately 9am to 3pm PST on September 29).