\u201cWhat\u2019s interesting, starts conversations. What\u2019s interesting, starts partnerships. When people can see alignment in both their interests and their needs, those partnerships are likely to be sustained, carried forward, and meaningful,\u201d co-organizer Kerri Raissian, an associate professor in UConn\u2019s School of Public Policy<\/a>, says.<\/p>\n Raissian and state Rep. Jaime Foster, a Democrat whose 57th District encompasses East Windsor, Ellington, and part of Vernon, meet years ago not as constituent and representative, but as fellow academics.<\/p>\n Foster \u201912 (CAHNR), \u201914 MS, \u201917 Ph.D., a three-time Husky who also did her post-doc work at UConn in 2018 and now is a research scientist, says the friendship that\u2019s developed between her and Raissian is one of the things that\u2019s allowed \u201cMoving Beyond\u201d to come to fruition.<\/p>\n Last fall, Foster says, the two were on a panel sponsored by UConn\u2019s Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP)<\/a>, when Foster says she started to think about how often she\u2019s been tapped as a conduit for legislators wanting to see scientific research before logging a vote and for researchers wanting to show their work to legislators to help influence those decisions.<\/p>\n A few days later, she texted Raissian with the idea for a conference to bridge the gap and soon InChip and the Connecticut Scholars Strategy Network (CT SSN)<\/a>, of which Raissian is a co-leader, signed on as sponsors.<\/p>\n \u201cSince I\u2019ve been at the Capitol, I have noticed there are challenges in the way legislators talk about the state of science or understand the state of science,\u201d Foster, co-organizer, says. \u201cThe biggest obstacle is that science gets summarized and delivered through a game of telephone: A scientist publishes their work in a journal that\u2019s behind a paywall, then someone at the Capitol pays for the article or worse, they just read the abstract. They summarize it for someone else, who summarizes it for someone else, each time making it more lay but perhaps more inaccurate.\u201d<\/p>\n With each summarization, the study becomes diluted and its conclusions tend to become more absolute, when in fact most are more nuanced, Foster says.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are also times when policymakers know there is more information needed but they\u2019re not clear where to go,\u201d Foster says. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you how many times I\u2019ve been on a committee and people have said, \u2018I found this research paper online, but I can\u2019t read the whole thing.\u2019 On multiple occasions the chair has turned to me and asked if I can get the paper for them.\u201d<\/p>\n And while she says she\u2019s happy to do so, there must be another way, and that starts by making connections.<\/p>\n \u201cChildren\u2019s mental health, for instance, is going to continue to be a top priority of the Education and Children\u2019s committees until we have made significant progress,\u201d Foster says. \u201cI don\u2019t know that a lot of legislators know there\u2019s a researcher who\u2019s using puppets to improve children\u2019s mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Kerri](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Raissian-300x200.jpeg\")