Jaime Foster

 

It started with a text while folding laundry on a Sunday afternoon. It turned into a first-of-its-kind and potentially annual event, the "Moving Beyond Implications: Research into Policy" conference in Hartford.

State Rep. Jaime Foster (D-Ellington, East Windsor, Vernon), who is the only research scientist serving in the CT House of Representatives, and Dr. Kerri Raissian of UConn Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP) and the Scholar Strategy Network (CT SSN) met at a public hearing a few years ago and kept in touch. One Sunday, while both were folding laundry and preparing for the week ahead, they were texting and discussing how great it would be if there was a way to bridge the divide between legislators creating policy and academics who had access to the research and data that would help create and evaluate better policies.

With that, "Moving Beyond" was born.

The half-day event on January 9 at the Legislative Office included 15 research presentations from academics and students from UConn, UConn School of Medicine, Trinity, and Yale, to eight standing committees of the Connecticut General Assembly, including Judiciary, Public Health, Education, and Environment. It also involved state agencies such as the Department of Public Health, Office of Policy and Management, Department of Energy and Environment, Department of Social Services, Department of Developmental Services, Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Labor.

Breakout sessions included presentations on food insecurity and the child tax credit, identifying and mapping bronchiolitis clusters in Connecticut, adding body size to Connecticut's civil rights law, the impact of Medicaid waivers following incarceration, the effects of extreme rainfall trends on existing water infrastructure and design considerations in the state, and adjusting school start times and the impact on adolescent mental health.

The conference covered a range of topics: "Feel Your Best Self," which provides ways for teachers to address childhood anxiety in schools; solutions to de-carbonize the transportation sector; and why physician conversations regarding secure firearm storage do or don’t happen were all covered. 

"The goal of the conference was to bridge a gap between what is thought of as 'two ivory towers' – we have academia, and we have the Legislative Office Building," said Rep. Foster. "There might not be enough cross-communication happening, but there is the whole-hearted intention and goal to bridge the communication between our two institutions."

"The relationships you're building today, you don't know where they're going to go," said Dr. Raissian. "You don't know when a state representative is going to text you while you're folding laundry and say, 'In eight weeks, would you like to do a conference with me' and you're going to say yes, and it will be one of the best laundry-folding adventures you've ever had."

Foster noted that every academic in the room that day has likely written an academic paper and ended it with, "policy implications include…" and the paper goes behind a paywall. Legislators don't see that research, Foster said, adding she's often asked by committee chairs to seek out certain research papers on specific topics.

"Even if research can be accessed from behind the paywall, sometimes translation and conversations still need to happen. Sometimes it still needs to be distilled into a brief," noted Dr. Raissian. "And sometimes academics speak in a secret language and it needs to be decoded."

"One of the benefits of a part-time legislature is that our representatives can come from all walks of life and a wide range of careers," said Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz.  "That variety of experience can then bring a unique perspective to the way we do things or how we look at legislation – often for the better.  As a research scientist for the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, Dr. Foster knows first-hand the importance of research – and as a legislator, State Rep. Foster has seen the extraordinary results that can come from turning relevant research into evidence-based policymaking. It was an honor to participate in this first-of-its-kind conference, and I’m looking forward to seeing the results.”  

"As a part-time legislature there is incredible potential to having stronger connections to researchers and academic experts whose work can inform policymaking and improve implementation and evaluation of policies that we pass into law,” Majority Leader Jason Rojas said. “This conference is a significant step forward in building a research capacity which will be a positive for Connecticut.”

And the first steps are already being taken from the conference. State Rep. Jeff Currey, Chair of the Education Committee, and Rep. Kathleen McCarty, the Education Committee's ranking member, both look forward to considering policy on do-it-yourself indoor air purifiers - Corsi-Rosenthal or "C-R Boxes." These air purifiers cost about $4 per student per academic year to make. C-R Boxes are both an accessible STEM project for Connecticut students, and they improve indoor air quality in a way that is both statistically and substantively significant.

“I already have plans to meet with the academics on this presentation and work on this upcoming session,” Currey said.

"I hope Connecticut can become state of the art - of state of the science policy," Rep. Foster concluded.

"Be connected today and stay connected tomorrow," said Dr. Raissian.

The next "Moving Beyond" Conference is slated to take place in December 2024, ahead of the 2025 legislative session.

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Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, Kerri M. Raissian (UConn, CT SSN), Abigail Fisher Williamson (Trinity, CT SSN), and State Rep. Jaime Foster, at the first “Moving Beyond” Conference at the Legislative Office Building. Contributed photo.