Internship Location: Madison, WI
Organization Type: Higher Education
Policy Areas: Climate Change, Health, Equity
The Patz lab internship with Dr. Jonathan Patz and Nova Tebbe (LFS alum) include first hand experience working with policy and writing memos. The Patz lab is run by Dr. Jonathan Patz who is a Professor of Environmental Studies and Population health sciences. He focuses on the health impacts of environmental changes, including climate change. There are two undergraduate teams that work with different policies. Currently the two teams are working on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. The role consists of reading through a specific amount of sections within the IRA (or whichever bill you are assigned to) and creating memos of each part that consists of a description of the sections, key amendments/components, health/equity/climate impacts, and a recommendation. The purpose of the recommendation is to recommend an area of focus for advocates to advocate for in future policy implementation. There are team meetings every week where you learn how to communicate and present your work, all while gaining teamwork skills. These meetings are done through Zoom and each week we present the current work we are doing to our other undergraduate peers and explain what our plans for the week are. This allows us to create an open communication relationship with ourselves, Nova, and our team. The goal is to eventually back a resource that is easily understood by the common eye, including an analysis of the IRA, to explain the health, equity and climate impacts. You typically work with a few other undergraduates and collaborate with Nova to create your memos for the sections you are assigned. All organization is done through notion and communication is generally in Slack.