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A Clear Vision and Fearlessness

Michelle Putnam, PhD

As an academic social worker, Michelle Putnam, PhD, is concerned about people who are aging with a long-term disability (such as multiple sclerosis, polio, and spinal cord injury). “My work is centered on understanding how public policy does or does not work for this group of people,” she says. While a Hartford Social Work Faculty Scholar (2002 to 2004), Dr. Putnam studied how aging and disability service provider networks collaborate to support people who are aging with disabilities.

Michelle Putnam, PhD

Michelle Putnam, PhD

As part of the Faculty Scholar program, Dr. Putnam, an assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis, attended the Policy Leadership Institute. There she had the opportunity to discuss her research with legislators from her home state of Missouri.

During the workshop prior to the day of lobbying, speakers discussed techniques for engaging policy makers about an issue or concern. “Advocacy can be intimidating,” says Dr. Putnam. “It was helpful to hear presentations from people who are active in the policy arena and to understand what they do and how they do it.”

The Policy Leadership Institute had a lasting and positive influence on Dr. Putnam and her career. “The workshop and the experience on Capitol Hill encouraged me to approach legislators and organizations at the state level to try to make policy changes,” she says.

Dr. Putnam designed her aging policy course to be a “think tank.” She and her students worked with community advocates and state legislators to shape a new Medicaid law in Missouri. Two items they proposed were included in the law—the creation of a permanent commission to find ways to simplify access to state health services, and the addition of a gerontologist on the commission. Dr. Putnam’s students also wrote policy briefs and testified before a State Senate Committee about legislation that would make long-term care insurance funded by public/private partnerships less discriminatory toward people with low incomes and existing medical conditions.

Dr. Putnam, teaching a doctoral level course on policy at Simmons College, Boston, MA.

“These were large victories,” says Dr. Putnam. “We got included and we got our voices heard.”

“The Policy Leadership Institute helped me to think about how to incorporate policy ideas as I design my studies,” she says. She tries to build an argument for creating effective policies or understanding how well policies are working into her research.

Dr. Putnam left Washington University in 2008 to accept a position as assistant professor at Simmons College School of Social Work in Boston.

She continues to utilize lessons from the Policy Leadership Institute. For example, she teaches a doctoral level course on incorporating public policy outcomes in research and scholarship. To help break down the mystique of policy work, Dr. Putnam often uses examples of her own research and its policy connections in class.

Dr. Putnam’s continued research into barriers to collaboration between aging and disability service provider networks, along with other work, has garnered national and international attention from organizations and institutions concerned with cross-network collaborations. She was the keynote speaker at the International Conference on Bridging Knowledge in Long-Term Care and Support: Crossing Boundaries between Ageing and Disability, sponsored by the European Union.

“Michelle is a unique individual who brings compassion and insight at the community level, but also brings a clear vision and fearlessness on a national policy stage,” says Joseph L. Lugo, Aging Services Program Specialist, Center for Planning and Policy Development, U.S. Administration on Aging.

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