Public Voices Fellowship

 

About the Public Voices Fellowship

In collaboration with The OpEd Project, the Columbia Public Voices Fellowship program cultivates thought leadership among scholars, scientists and clinicians who can influence the larger public debate beyond the walls of academia. With support from Columbia University’s Department of Medicine, the Heyman Center for the Humanities, and the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion, twenty faculty members across Columbia University (six from the Mailman School) were selected through a competitive application process.

Selected faculty joined a year-long fellowship program. They met for a total of four (day-long or 1.5-day) workshop convenings, scheduled at two-three month intervals over the course of nine months. The unique curriculum combined game-based learning with the latest research on influence, including: how ideas spread, when and why minds change, how credibility is built, and how impact is created. Between convenings, Fellows joined monthly calls with high-level media insiders (NYT, TED, CNN, Wikipedia, etc), received weekly customized email support and news alerts, and were assigned to work with top journalist mentors for dedicated one-on-one coaching.  Upon completion of the fellowship, they have continued access to The OpEd Project's national network of high-level journalist “mentor-editors” for support. Unfortunately, this program is no longer being offered. 

The Payoff

Columbia faculty members have described the Fellowship as "transformative," "career changing," and "life changing." It’s one of the few opportunities to work deeply with wonderful colleagues across disciplines.

Over the last three years of Public Voices at Columbia, sixty faculty members have infused national and global dialogues with their perspectives on topics such as the Ebola health crisis, inmate education, and parental bullying of LGBT children. Prior Columbia Public Voices Fellows have published in The New York TimesThe Huffington PostSlatePacific StandardAl JazeeraUSA TodayThe Chronicle of Higher EducationThe HillThe Boston Globe and more. They have been interviewed on CNN, Al Jazeera America, and NPR. We invite you to experience the energy, excitement, and impact of the Columbia Fellowship by clicking through to the short videos from 2014-20152015 and 2016 to hear the program described in your fellow faculty members' own words. 

Publications

In 2017, Mailman fellows have released op-ed pieces across various media outlets including The Hill, The Washington Post, and Truth Out. See the Op-Ed archive for pieces from our previous fellows.

Quotations

Fellows were quoted by Gizmondo, NPR, and The New York Times.

INTERVIEWS

Fellows were interviewed by Newstalk 770, NPR, and CNN.

 

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