looking to hire a researcher for our child care division. The
researchers here know a few people who've graduated from the UIC College
Urban Planning and Public Affairs and we've been impressed with their
abilities and principled commitments. One of those impressive people is
Chirag Mehta, who works down the hall from me. I asked him to suggest a
few professors at CUPPA who might know of students or recent graduates
who might be interested in working at HCII's research department. He
suggested I reach out to the three of you.
I've attached the job description, but I want to emphasize that we also
have a policy department at HCII, and Research is a very different
environment than Policy. We do help out on electoral and legislative
work quite a bit. But functionally and temperamentally, HCII researchers
are more geared toward understanding the broader power structure in
communities and industries, and taking on private sector interests on
behalf of working people. I don't know if we always do that as well as
we aim to, but that's the general orientation of the department.
I saw this because I've found that more strictly
policy/politics-oriented people are often a poor fit with the research
department. At the same time the child care and early education workers
we are organizing work for employers who are heavily dependent on public
funding, so there is a role for understanding policy and public finance
in this position. What we really need is someone who can master those
nuts and bolts while keeping the frame of building power for workers
rather than getting lost down the rabbit hole looking for the perfect
policies.
If you know of someone who might be a good fit for this position and
would be interested in applying, or if you have any questions for me,
please let me know.
Thanks, and happy holidays!
Sharon Post
Research Director
