Reflecting on two years at MOST
A letter from our outgoing Deputy Director, Dr. Josh Mueller
As I prepare to leave MOST Policy Initiative at the end of this month, I look back at the past two years with a sense of great pride. The members of the inaugural class of Legislative Policy Fellows laid a strong foundation for the program in 2020–21, which was followed by a year of incredible growth in 2022.
To date, our team has written nearly 200 Science Notes for more than 80 different legislators and provided informational testimony at more than 30 committee hearings. Our work has been featured in statewide and local newspapers, local radio segments, and Missouri General Assembly committee reports. We have seen our research quoted by legislators during floor debate and used as preparation for committee hearings, and received an acknowledgment on the House floor this past year for our contributions. Lawmakers consistently judge our work as rigorous and nonpartisan, and staff members report that they consistently refer to our Science Note database to learn more about policy topics.
I believe that all of these accomplishments are built upon the strong relationships that we have worked to develop across the state. Despite the significant challenges introduced by COVID, our Fellows found ways to earn the trust of legislators by proactively offering our research services to members of both chambers and parties. Producing timely research, being diligent in following up, and making efforts to visit members in their home districts helped solidify MOST’s reputation as a trusted and valuable resource. This success in the state has translated to the national scale, as our accomplishments have earned us invitations to present our work at conferences and positioned our group as a partner and resource for other state policy fellowship programs.
Our engagement with communities across Missouri has been crucial to setting up the organization for continued success. In a relatively short time, we have engaged with hundreds of experts and researchers who have generously contributed their knowledge and networks to us as we work to connect science to policy. Looking to the future, we have made consistent efforts to engage with undergraduates in the state and across the country to empower them to pursue science policy opportunities, including potential career paths. We hosted our first Graduate Student Fellow in 2022, and hope to include more students in our work going forward.
While this growth was perhaps imaginable to us two years ago as a young group of optimists, it was in no way guaranteed. It has taken immense dedication from our Fellows, support from our leadership team and funders, and buy-in from policymakers to get this far. I strongly believe in the value of evidence-based policymaking, and know that MOST is providing a necessary example of productive nonpartisan policy engagement. The MOST Policy Fellowship was essential to my development as a science policy professional and I will be sad for my time here to come to an end, but I am also excited to see what MOST accomplishes in the years to come. — Josh Mueller, Outgoing Deputy Director and Inaugural Health & Mental Health Policy Fellow.
