What would you do if you had the opportunity to speak directly to a Senator about an important issue..right this minute? For Dr. Virginia Shapiro, the answer was to spring into action and deploy the skills she learned and used on the AAI Public Affairs Committee.
While Virginia Shapiro, PhD, was attending a recent FASEB conference in Niagara Falls, New York, she took the opportunity to advocate for NIH funding by approaching Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer directly. Dr. Shapiro credits the training she received as part of AAI Capitol Hill Day for the impetus to make her voice heard in this way.
Shapiro’s encounter started during lunch at the FASEB Science Research Conference on Mechanisms of Immune Cell Development. One of her lunch companions received a news alert indicating that Schumer was holding a press conference three blocks away. Almost immediately, she and fellow AAI member Heather Conti were on their way. She described the meeting to AAI News & Views:
As we approached, the news conference had ended and they were breaking it down. Senator Schumer was still there answering reporters’ questions. He then proceeded to meet with some young staffers and take pictures. I approached slowly, positioning myself between the staffers and his waiting car. When he turned to go to his car, I was there.
I took the opportunity without hesitation, and reached out to shake his hand and immediately thanked him for his support of Science and the NIH, and that I was attending a conference just a few blocks away. (That’s all I said—two sentences!—using my training from Capitol Hill Day: thanking him first and then providing just the main point.) He told me to tell my colleagues that they were working to restore the 15 billion that had been removed by the administration from the NIH. I asked if we could have a picture, and a staffer took it. I think the total time from the decision to leave lunch and return was less than 20 minutes.
Shapiro says that her interest in public affairs started when she was a member and chair of the AAI Committee on the Status of Women. Under her leadership, the CSOW launched the Career Advisory Board and published a 15-year gender equity survey in The Journal of Immunology. Service on the Public Affairs Committee was “a natural extension” of this work. “The training that I received prior to [Capital Hill Day] was invaluable, as I believed I knew how to effectively advocate for Science and the NIH with members of Congress.”
For more information on how you can develop effective advocacy skills, visit AAI Public Affairs and learn about the programs available to you.
