This summer, I worked at a non-partisan think tank called the Niskanen Center in Washington, DC. The internship is part of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation Fiscal Internship Program. At Niskanen, I worked on the health policy team conducting research, writing public commentary, and attending meetings with policy stakeholders. One project I worked on involved drug patent reform. With my colleague, I wrote about a bipartisan bill called the ETHIC Act that would eliminate a common patent system gaming tactic, lowering costs of prescriptions for patients. I did research on how this bill would save federal dollars, ultimately finding that it would save billions in Medicare Part B and Part D drug payments.
I presented my research at the end of my internship to my colleagues and fellow Peterson foundation program participants. This internship taught me how to write in a more journalistic/theoretical manner, while also prioritizing plain language for public consumption of the piece. I also got to experience what it’s like to do government affairs work, particularly in a federal setting on Capitol Hill. Working in DC has been so valuable to me, and I hope to keep building on my skills in communicating policy topics to both policy audiences and the public effectively.
