Working to Collaboratively to Develop Effective Policies: Academic Partnerships with the City of Seattle

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

The City of Seattle has implemented multiple innovative policies over the last decade, including the $15 minimum wage, a sweetened beverage tax, policies promoting wage equity for non-profit human services workers, and a healthy food benefit program (Fresh Bucks) that provides a sustainable approach to healthy food access. These policies have not only gained national attention, they have been the subject of several successful collaborative research partnerships between city policymakers and academic researchers.

This roundable includes three researchers who have worked with the City of Seattle to ensure that its policies are rigorously evaluated and that the evidence produced is effectively translated to policymakers, community organizations, and residents. It will also include a City of Seattle policymaker, Robyn Kumar, Fresh Bucks program manager, who has experience working collaboratively with researchers and who can provide her perspective as a consumer and interpreter of academic research findings when designing effective and equitable policies.

The three academic panelists have years of experience working with local government to design program evaluations that address both policymakers' interests and answer questions relevant to the academic literature. All three have been PIs on multiple funded evaluations of these policies, with funding coming from the City of Seattle, the National Institutes of Health, and various philanthropic foundations. 

Some topics of discussion will be:
-Designing research that policymakers will find useful and that can be translated into policy improvements
-Working with policymakers and community members to interpret research findings
-Securing local government or external funding for policy evaluations
-Responding to changes in the policy environment while maintaining planned research goals
-Challenges of working closely with policymakers

Policy Area

• Poverty and Income Policy

Secondary Policy Area

• Politics, Media, and the Policy Process

Moderator

• Heather D Hill, University of Washington

Organizer

• Melissa Knox, University of Washington

Speakers

• Jessica C Jones-Smith, University of California, Irvine

• Jennie Romich, University of Washington

• Melissa Knox, University of Washington

• Robyn Kumar, City of Seattle, Office of Sustainability & Environment