What is impact?
Like most good things you don’t appreciate at the time they’re said, but get in retrospect, my answer to this question comes from my mom.
You see, since I was old enough to know that they existed I wanted to be a lawyer when I grew up. I watched a lot of TV as a child and LOVED crime dramas of all kinds, but particularly those wherein the intrepid lawyer fought for justice for the little guy (think any from the Law-and-Order franchises, A Time to Kill, Philadelphia, or a Few Good Men). In all these shows or movies, the characters collected the evidence, saw that larger forces were trying to out-maneuver them, and often risked everything to do the right thing. There was something deeply comforting in the fact that the good won the day in these shows, and I wanted desperately to be part of a process where I could help the good win.
My family was solidly lower-middle class. My parents encouraged my three siblings and I to go to college, but college was for getting a professional job. A master’s degree in the social sciences was going to land you a really great job in a coffee shop and not much else, and PhD’s weren’t even on the table. But college showed me there were options. During my junior year the possibility of having a job dedicated to advancing knowledge seemed possible for someone like me. So, I decided to go to grad school.
But first I had to tell my parents. I decided to do it one weekend when I was home from university. While we ate dinner, we were watching the news, when a report lamenting wastage of public dollars on research studying the impacts of freezing temperatures on worms flashed across the screen. Without really registering the content of the story, I snapped to life when the commercial break had started. “Well, it’s now or never,” I thought. I quickly outlined my new plans for grad school to my parents, saying that I had found a supervisor to take me on and that I was going to start with my master’s degree and then go onto my PhD. What followed were lots of bewildered questions boiling down to this: Was I sure I didn’t want to be a lawyer? And what kind job would grad school mean? I’m not sure I had any good answers to these questions, but eventually the questions stopped. The last thing my mom said was, “well you’d better not do that silly kind of research “freezing worms”, because why does that matter to anyone”.
Thinking back on that conversation as a tenured associate professor, it isn’t that grad school helped me see the massive impact of worm freezing on our society, instead what I think about is the interest the study generated. Although it wasn’t a positive story, it none-the-less captured the interest of reporters and viewers that night. Since then, this story has reminded me that people outside of the academy are paying attention to our work. The outcome of that attention might be good or bad depending on how WE share it with the world. At the end of the day the public wants to know how our work will matter.
After completing a master’s degree in sociology and a PhD in experimental medicine, I found my way to pharmacy practice research. In this health-related field, I use my skills as a qualitative researcher and implementation scientist to get evidence into practice faster and more sustainably for the benefit of pharmacists, patients, and our communities. Through it all, I would love to say to you that I’ve always enacted my mom’s idea of doing work that matters. However, that’s not always been the case. My approach to impact has evolved over time.
When I first got my position as a tenure track faculty member I needed to get promoted, so impact meant doing research that could be published quickly. At other times projects were shelved because I couldn’t convince other researchers of the importance of the work, and my grant application was denied. In this case impact came from me learning how to talk about my ideas in compelling ways to a variety of audiences. Over time I’ve also added new skills like community engaged research to my methodological repertoire. It is community engaged research which has allowed me to add the potential for direct and real time outcomes to my approach to impact.
Each year I further clarify and/or add a facet to my personal approach to impact. At this moment impact is answering research questions that are important to community partners, so that they can take those findings to improve the health and wellbeing of their communities. Impact is not just publications, presentations, and accolades from my academic colleagues. Impact is working myself out of a job providing training and support to community partners about community/academic partnerships and in so doing empowering community partners to work with all researchers as equitable partners. Impact is not worrying about “protecting” partners, while hoarding the value of those relationships myself.
Some days it feels like I am just freezing worms for no apparent reason. But on other days when I am out in the community meeting people and helping them to solve problems that are important to them, I can see how much my work matters. I want that for you and your work too.
What’s your definition of impact? Don’t have one yet? That’s okay, start with these few questions below:
1. What are the none changing aspects of your current position? (Effort allocation, resources (i.e. time and money), current responsibilities (courses taught, students supervised, committees being served)
2. What is your research area(s)?
3. What do you value? (not sure check out the link below for a place to start)
4. Where do my current values, the realities of my current position overlap, and research areas?
Once you have your answers let me know, I’d love to hear how you made out.
Resources:
1. Measuring your personal values: https://positivepsychology.com/values-questionnaire/
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