Practical Tools for Advancing Public Policy

This course aims to provide public policy students with a package of skills, frameworks, and experiences that will make them more complete and effective actors in the world of public policy. Students will receive opportunities for skill-building on a weekly basis in a variety of areas related to policy communications and analysis.  Areas include exposure to frameworks for understanding the public policy process and carrying out policy analysis; practice doing public speaking on camera; technical instruction in presentation-making and data visualization; training and practice writing and placing op-eds; instruction on how to write talking points, strategy memos, and press releases; exposure to strategies for running effective meetings; and methods for leveraging the media in advocacy campaigns. Through in-depth case studies, interactions with practitioners, and an end-of-quarter capstone project, students will receive exposure to a variety of different policy problems and domains. Regular in-class and out-of-class exercises will ask students to apply knowledge gained in the course to particular public policy issues in the real world.