Episode 153. Rana Dershowitz, A Career Driven by Passion from Sports Law and Public Policy
The 92 Report
Rana Dershowitz went straight to Harvard Law School after graduating in 1992, partly due to the economy and her love for learning. She describes her experience at Harvard Law School, including her role as a law school "old timer" in Cambridge. After law school, Rana moved back to New York and started working on Wall Street, initially hating the big law environment but appreciating the people she worked with. Entertainment Law at Madison Square Garden and onto Sports Law Rana discusses her career counselor's advice to explore sports law, which she had overlooked despite her involvement in...
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152. Eugene Kim, Pediatric Surgeon and Wine Connoisseur
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Eugene Kim shares his post-graduation journey staying in Boston to finish research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute which was part of his thesis and also laid down the groundwork for his own cancer research which he has conducted over the years. He credits his understanding of science to his time at Harvard. He also worked at the now-closed Love the Border Cafe. Eugene reflects on the valuable lessons learned from working at the cafe and describes the unique subculture of the cafe's staff, including the Brazilian kitchen staff and the diverse backgrounds of the waiters and...
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151. Jonathan Hughes, Consulting at the Intersection of Strategy & Conflict Management
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Jonathan Hughes talks about his career in consulting, starting with an economic consulting firm, Putnam Hayes and Bartlett, in Los Angeles. He mentions his connection back to Harvard through CMI (Conflict Management Inc.) founded by Roger Fisher and Bruce Patton, and his subsequent roles at Vantage Partners and BDO. The Career Path As a Consultant Jonathan describes his role at CMI, focusing on complex negotiations and business partnerships, and his role in helping to start the boutique firm, Vantage Partners where he spent around 25 years as a partner. He later moved over to BDO,...
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150. Steve Petersen, From Improv to Philosophy of AI
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Steve recounts his senior year at Harvard, and how he was torn between pursuing acting and philosophy. He graduated with a dual degree in philosophy and math but also found time to act in theater and participated in 20 shows. A Love of Theater and a Move to London Steve explains why the lack of a theater major at Harvard allowed him to explore acting more than a university with a theater major. He touches on his parents' concerns about his career prospects if he pursued acting, and his decision to apply to both acting and philosophy graduate schools. Steve discusses his...
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149. P.J. Karafiol, Chicago Public High School Principal
The 92 Report
Show Notes: P.J. shares the backstory of his name and how he became a high school principal. He studied simultaneously in law school for a JD and in the Philosophy department for a PhD at the University of Chicago. After realizing he didn't enjoy law or philosophy, he taught math at Phillips Andover and later in Chicago. He helped start a new public school, Walter Payton College Prep, and has been a principal at Lake View High School for the past 10 years. Teaching Chaos Theory and Math P.J. describes his experience teaching at Phillips Andover, including teaching chaos theory. He found the...
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148. Scott Cole, 50+ Jobs Worked Since Harvard
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Scott Cole describes his initial struggles at Harvard, dropping out after freshman year, and returning multiple times before finally graduating in 2012. He shares his first dropout experience, including a brief stint in California and a return to Harvard for sophomore year. He details his various jobs and adventures, including working at a car wash, landscaping, and a research assistant position at Harvard Forest. Working on a Ranch in Wyoming Scott thinks back to his days working at a ranch in Wyoming, where he learned cowboy skills and participated in cattle drives. He...
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147. Anca Miruna Achim, Teaching about the Past to Speculate about the Future in Mexico City
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Miruna studied art history at Harvard, focusing on Renaissance art. After taking a year off to travel and visit Romania, she decided to study Latin American Studies and Spanish and Portuguese at Yale. She found the graduate experience at Yale challenging, especially the sense of isolation that can come with graduate work when it is not socially or politically involved. Miruna began traveling to Mexico for her research on colonial Latin America, focusing on the intersection of history of science, literature, and ritual. Teaching History of Science Miruna moved to Mexico City, where...
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146. Franklin Habit, A Long and Winding Yarn
The 92 Report
Show Notes:Franklin Habit talks about working in higher education administration (and elsehwere) before eventually finding happiness in his current profession within the fiber arts. He discusses some of the blind alleys he explored, including museum work, opera stage directing, web design, and online marketing. Building a Career in KnittingFranklin shares how he learned to knit from a veteran knitter and classmate, Eliza Lake. He describes how his blog about knitting took off, leading to a book deal and a career in teaching and writing. Franklin recounts the early days of his blog,...
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145. Diego Fonstad, Educational Toys and Ed Tech Tinkerer
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Diego kicks off the conversation with a quick review of his career path, which included working at a business school in Barcelona, consulting in biotech and healthcare, and working as product manager and product running product groups. He then went back to business school. He talks about his job at the business school in Barcelona and what prompted him to take it. He explains that the opportunity arose through a professor he knew, and the timing of the 1992 Olympics made it hard to resist. He shares his insights on Catalonia's cultural differences and the importance of knowing...
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144. Kellie Doucette, Unexpected Journey: Pink Sand Beaches to New Jersey Politics
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Kellie Doucette describes her journey as zigs and zags, with three distinct chunks defined by her location: Northern Virginia, Bermuda, and New Jersey. She worked for a small health policy consulting firm called the Lewin Group in Northern Virginia, DC, where she met her future husband, John Doucette. A 13-Year Stint in Bermuda Kellie, an actuary, began her career in the Bermuda market after taking the actuarial exams. She and her husband moved to Bermuda in 1996, and they enjoyed the adventure of visiting family on the East Coast and raising their children there. The reinsurance...
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Julia Lynch opens the conversation with a statement about identifying now as a Radcliffe graduate, despite not having identified with feminism during college. At college, Julia didn’t think feminism was a pressing issue, but later realized that her career has been shaped by discrimination and enriched by her experiences as a mother and wife. Julia's professional trajectory was predictable, but she had to fight for her place in a male-dominated profession. At the age of 50, her life seems placid and predictable, but she is grateful for the surprises and bumps in her journey.
Working in a Male-dominated Career
After leaving Harvard, she worked as a secretary for a year, applied for a Rotary Fellowship, went to Italy, did a Phd. in Political Science, and onto her first job at UPenn where she achieved tenure. Julia discusses her career in academia, which she had no idea was so male dominated. She notes that, while traditionally it was believed that STEM fields were male-dominated, some social science disciplines, such as political science, economics, and philosophy, remain some of the most male-dominated areas despite changes in STEM fields. She initially had no idea that women would be held to a different standard than men in terms of tenure and promotion.
Discrimination in the Tenure and Promotion Process
Julia talks about obvious and systematic discrimination in the tenure and promotion process. When applying for tenure in a political science department, she found that men who had lower qualifications than many women were put forward while women with much better qualifications were typically discouraged from applying for tenure or simply would not make tenure. She mentions the discrimination in the application process, and also noted that women authors tend to get cited less than male authors. She explains why there is less discrimination in the private sector and why, as a student, she didn’t know about the discrimination against female professors.
The Academic Job Market
The conversation turns to the academic job market which is a complex one, with an average of 30% of women in senior faculty positions in political science. Political science is siloed as a field, with four main subfields: American politics, comparative politics, international relations, and political theory. The representation of women in these subfields is different, with less women in international relations and more in comparative politics and political theory. Julia explains that the most important thing to know about this topic is that women are entering the pipeline, but they either jump or get pushed off the tenure track early on in the process, never making it through to become full professors in political science. This results in a market for junior people at the pre-tenured stage, where women get jobs but don't go on to get tenure. Even if they stay on the tenure track, it takes them longer to get to that stage of full professor and spend a shorter percentage of their career at that top rank.
The Push to Increase Diversity
Julia talks about the push to increase diversity in new hires in the academia world and mentions that there was some pushback from younger professors. More women and minorities were hired, and progress was made at the junior level, but the problem was that the leaks in the pipeline were not fixed. Julia mentions the patterns that made this apparent and that women tend to do qualitative work, which is less valued in the profession.
Male Flight in Academic Disciplines
The concept of male flight in academic disciplines is discussed, and Julia explains that this trend is striking, as seen in the case of archeology, a sub-field of anthropology, which was a male-dominated discipline. In political science, there hasn't been a significant change in male representation, although women have made breakthroughs in the political system. Qualitative, comparative historical research, which is dominated by the study of American politics, has seen a shift towards female representation. This shift is also evident in areas like qualitative, comparative historical research, where incoming men are fewer.
Research on Health and Inequality
Julia talks about her research in health and inequality. The United States has a lower life expectancy than Europe. This is partly due to poverty, which prevents access to fresh food and the time and energy to pursue a healthier lifestyle. Poverty also causes stress, which shortens the part of our chromosomes responsible for aging. Political decisions, such as not addressing poverty, particularly child poverty, have contributed to this issue. These experiences accumulate over a lifetime, making health outcomes worse for those starting their lives in poverty. Policy decisions and political decisions, such as allowing people to have a voice in politics, also play a role in health inequality. Julia states that, to address health inequality, the US should prioritize policy changes, including addressing poverty and promoting inclusion in politics. Julia’s research included health and inequality in several European countries, including Germany after reunification. She mentions her book on this topic. Bristol University Press has made the book open access, making it available for free download on Amazon. If ordering from the US, it can be found through an aggregator or local bookstore.
Thoughts on the Second Act
Julia shares insights from her first and second marriages, including what it means to stick it out for the kids or live authentically. She believes that waiting for her current husband to separate their households was the right timing for her second act. She talks about her next project which involves travelling to Europe, her involvement in a women's choir, and playing french horn in a semi-professional orchestra. The women’s choir performs for various events, including concerts and gigs, to raise awareness about women's rights and encourage voter turnout. The choir started as a group of friends and family, but has grown to become a larger organization. They perform music written by women, often contemporary composers. Research suggests that engaging in group activities, such as dancing or singing, can align brain waves and emotions, creating a powerful bond between individuals. This bond is particularly powerful in smaller groups, where the choir can create a sense of community and belonging. Engaging in community is rare for adults, especially in today's world where we are constantly connected to our phones. Julia stresses the importance of engaging in community, whether in a church, synagogue, mosque, or running club.
Influential Harvard Courses and Professors
Julia mentions Justice class and her nickname in the class; she also mentions political theory classes. She remembers the class The Welfare State in the United States, taught by Theda Skocpol and Margaret Weir. Many of Julia’s professors at Harvard have since become peers and colleagues.
Timestamps:
05:21: Challenges of Being a Woman in Academia
13:23: Representation and Diversity in Political Science
20:36: Male Flight and Gender Dynamics in Academia
24:21: Julia's Research on Health Inequality
34:01: Personal Reflections and Life Changes
37:40: Balancing Professional and Personal Life
44:57: Influence of Harvard Professors and Courses
Links:
Faculty profile: https://live-sas-www-polisci.pantheon.sas.upenn.edu/people/standing-faculty/julia-lynch
The Book: Getting Better: The Policy and Politics of Reducing Health Inequalities: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/getting-better
Featured Non-profit
The featured non-profit of this episode of The 92 Report is recommended by Ben Dattner who reports:
“Hi. I'm Ben Dattner, class of 1992. The featured non-profit of this episode of The 92 report is the Y of Washington Heights and Inwood in New York City. Their website is YWHI.org. I'm proud to have been a donor to and volunteer for this organization for the last 15 years, and they do wonderful things in the Upper Manhattan community. Thank you. Now here is Will Bachman with this week's episode."
To learn more about their work, visit: https://www.ywhi.org/