Public Affairs Plan

2110 Student

PA 2110 Intro to Public Affairs

MWF 9:10-10:05

Final Paper: Public Affairs Career Plan

December 1, 2016

Mental health in our modern society is often an issue swept under the rug of the public eye.

While 1 in 5 adults will struggle with a mental illness in their life (NAMI, 2015), over 60% will

not receive treatment. This lack of treatment is due to a number of barriers, the two largest being

52% situational and 42% financial (Kessler, Berglund, Koch, Laska, Leaf, Wang, 2001). The

impact of this lack of mental healthcare treatment reaches our nation in fingers of reduced labor

supply, public income support payments, reduced educational attainment, and social costs of

incarceration and homelessness. Other impacts include high rates of medical complications, high

levels of pulmonary disease (severely mentally ill individuals make up 44% of all cigarette

smoking in the United States), and early mortality rates-- a loss of 13-34 years (Insel, 2008).

I want to make a contribution to solving this issue in our society by working for the National

Alliance on Mental Illness. NAMI is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization

that works to improve the lives of the millions of Americans affected by mental illness (NAMI,

2015). This organization educates, advocates, listens, and leads in the healthcare community

through awareness events, toll-free hotlines, research, and public policy influence. The National

Alliance on Mental Illness dedicates a significant portion of their efforts to advocating for

change in public policy that has led to securing better funding for research, protecting access to

treatment and services, and attaining mental health parity in most insurance plans to ensure that

mental health is given equivalent priority to physical health. Interest groups have a tremendous

opportunity to impact public policy outcomes because while values and beliefs of a Congress

member may be relatively stable in the short run, his or her connection to legislative proposals

are not (R. Smith, 1984). I hope to work as a Policy Advisor in the Advocacy and Public Policy

branch of NAMI to encourage policy choices that best benefit the mentally ill, their families, and

our society holistically.

The kind of public affairs career I would like to pursue to help address this problem would be

a Senior Policy Advisor in the Advocacy and Public Policy branch of the National Alliance on

Mental Illness. According to the Collins Dictionary, a policy advisor is a person who provides

ideas or plans that are used by an organization or government as a basis for making decisions.

The role of this position includes drafting amicus curiae briefs in precedent sitting litigation

affecting people with mental illnesses and providing technical assistance to attorneys and NAMI

affiliates on legal and public policy issues. A Senior Policy Advisor also is used as a frequent

resource for print and broadcast media on legal and policy issues.

I hope to reach this goal by graduating from The Ohio State University with a Bachelor of

Arts in Public Management, Leadership and Policy, and then attending law school to receive my

JD. After graduation from law school, I hope to pursue a career at a corporate or private firm to

gain experience, insight, and pay back any student loans. With valuable in-the-field experience

under my belt, I then plan to take part in direct service positions in the developmental disabilities

and mental illnesses fields or doing research for a think tank, a path often taken by policy

advisors (thegradcafe.com, 2013). I hope to take an entry-level job at the National Alliance on

Mental Illness, or some such similar grass-roots organization, in the respective advocacy and

public policy branch, and eventually work my way up from there. Having practical policy

analysis, law and mental healthcare field experience will help me to better understand the subject

matter and improve my likelihood for potential promotions.

The current Senior Policy Advisor in Advocacy and Public Policy at NAMI is Ronald S.

Honberg, JD. Mr. Honberg previously worked as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor for the

State of Maryland and held a variety of direct service positions related to the mental illness field

prior to joining NAMI in 1988. Mr. Honberg has a Juris Doctor degree from the University of

Maryland School of Law and master’s degree in education from the University of Maryland

(NAMI, 2016).

Angela Kimball, who is currently the National Director in Advocacy and Public Policy at

the National Alliance on Mental Illness, previously provided strategic support to Oregon’s

transformative community-governed integration of Medicaid health, mental health, substance use

and dental services as an Innovator Agent with the Oregon Health Authority. She has received

several awards for her legislative work, including children’s mental health reform and passage of

Oregon’s mental health parity law. (NAMI, 2016) Angela represents the individuals in this field

who do not formally have a JD, however have contributed to public policy through alternative

avenues and are on the path to becoming a policy advisor.

Policy Advisor careers are expected to grow by 1,400 additional people employed from

2012-2020 and make a median salary of $102,000 (Career Glider, 2012).

I fully comprehend that this is an extremely lofty career goal but continue to set my sights

high. In this career there truly is no set in stone path-- there is flexibility in degrees, experience

and career journey. While the positon of Policy Advisor is not exceptionally common, the need

for policy advice and expertise is in no short demand. A large factor in this direct path would be

my LSAT score. The Law School Admissions Test is rests on the assertion of a series of studies

“that examine the relationship between a student’s LSAT scores and their grades first year of law

school.” (Thomas, 2003). According to US News data, the top eleven law schools in the country

have a median score of 186 or higher (US News, 2016). This is a very competitive score and I’ll

be taking the LSAT in June following my junior year of undergraduate study. Scoring low on the

LSAT and being unable to attend a competitive law school may direct me to a master’s program,

such as a Masters in Public Administration as an alternative.

As there are many opportunities in this extensive plan for failure, the field of mental

health is slowly yet surely becoming a higher priority in our nation. Mental health and decreasing

mental illness stigma was recently named a royal initiative by the Duke and Duchess of

Cambridge (The Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry,

2016), and the message is spreading the world over. As mental health becomes more and more of

a priority, jobs related to mental health public policy will likely increase in the coming years as

will the opportunities to tackle this immense problem.

References

Collins English Dictionary. (2016). Definition of policy advisor. Retrieved from

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/policy-adviser

Insel, Thomas R. (2008). Assessing the economic costs of serious mental illness. Am J

Psychiatry 165:6, 663-665

Kessler, R. C., Berglund, P. A., Bruce, M. L., Koch, J. R., Laska, E. M., Leaf, P. J., … Wang, P.

S. (2001). The prevalence and correlates of untreated serious mental illness. Health

Services Research, 36(6 Pt 1), 987–1007.

National Alliance on Mental Illness (n.d.). About us. Retrieved September 1, 2016 from

http://www.nami.org/About-NAMI

Smith, Richard A. 1984. Advocacy, interpretation and influence in the U.S Congress. Legislative

Studies Quarterly 20:89-139

The Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry. (2016). Heads

together: the duke and duchess of Cambridge and prince harry working to eliminate

stigma around mental health. Retrieved from http://royalfoundation.com/heads-together-

duke-duchess-cambridge-prince-harry-working-eliminate-stigma-around-mental-health/

The Grad Café. (2013) Paths to becoming a policy advisor. Retrieved from

http://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/44407-paths-to-becoming-a-foreign-policy-advisor/

Thomas, D. (2003). Predicting Law School Academic Performance From LSAT Scores and

Undergraduate Grade Point Averages: Comprehensive Study. Arizona State Law

Journal35(3), 1007-1028.