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October Live Chat

The STPF Application: Strategy & Tips

Join the AAAS S&T Policy Fellowships (STPF) on October 7 at 1p.m. ET for our final live chat of the year. Where do all fellows’ journeys begin? They all start with a great application. Whether you’re ready to hit “submit” or you’re just getting started, tune in for strategies and tips to get organized and make your application shine. But don’t delay: the STPF application closes on November 1.

STPF Eligibility Criteria

STPF is open to U.S. citizens who hold doctoral level degrees in any of the following fields:

Biological, Agricultural or Life sciences.
Physical or Earth sciences.
Social and Behavioral sciences.
Computational and Information sciences.
Mathematics and Statistics.
Medical and Health Sciences.
Engineering disciplines (applicants with an M.S. in engineering and three years of professional engineering experience also qualify).

Live Chat Speakers:

Rashada Alexander, STPF Director, 2009-11 Executive Branch Fellow, National Institutes of Health, Office of the Director

Rashada Alexander provides strategic leadership for the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships program (STPF). With a team of about 20 staff and a $16+ million-dollar annual budget, she administers programming and professional development for more than 250 fellows annually in the executive, judicial and legislative branches of the U.S. government. As an STPF alumna fellow, she puts her experience to good use in leading the next evolution of the program and ensuring it continues to excel in connecting scientific expertise with policymaking.

Roberto Delgado, Jr., 2013-15 Executive Branch Fellow, National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs

Roberto is a permanent Program Director for the Arctic Observing Network (AON) in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Office of Polar Programs (OPP); Agency Chapter Lead for Climate Trends on the 5th National Climate Assessment; Chair of the federal-only interagency United States Arctic Observing Network Board of the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC); a US delegate to the Arctic Council’s Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme Working Group; US national representative for the international Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks initiative; and helps to manage NSF cross-directorate programs including Biodiversity on a Changing Planet, Long-Term Ecological Research, and Navigating the New Arctic.

Prior to joining OPP's Section for Arctic Sciences, Roberto served as a program chief at the National Institutes of Health, where he co-led the IARPC Health and Wellbeing Collaboration Team, coordinated the Arctic Council's RISING SUN initiative, and managed research focused on resilience and well-being among rural, global, Arctic, and American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

He earned his doctorate in Biological Anthropology and Anatomy (now Evolutionary Anthropology) from Duke University, with expertise in biodiversity, environmental monitoring, evolutionary ecology, Indigenous peoples issues, protected areas management, terrestrial ecosystems, and wildlife biology and conservation. He also previously conducted field research throughout the tropics and held faculty positions at Hunter College of the City University of New York and the University of Southern California.

Pamela Ebert Flattau, 1974-75 APA Congressional Science & Engineering Fellow, Office of Senator Walter F. Mondale

Pamela Ebert Flattau earned degrees in experimental psychology (visual perception) from the University of Leeds, UK [BSc (Hons) 1969] and the University of Georgia, USA [MS (with distinction) 1972 and PhD 1974]. In 2014, the University of Georgia Franklin College awarded her a Distinguished Alumni Award.

Dr. Flattau served in various leadership positions with the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council between 1975 and 1995 including Staff Officer, Commission on Human Resources (1975 - 1981); Senior Staff Officer, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (1985-1990); and Director, Studies and Surveys Unit, Office of Scientific and Engineering Personnel (1990-1995). She authored chapters of the National Science Board Science and Engineering Indicators Report between 1981 and 1985; and served as a Research Staff Member in the Behavioral Sciences with the IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) from 2003 – 2014.

She currently serves as executive director of a policy research group which, in “special consultative status,” has contributed behavioral science policy briefings to the UN Economic and Social Council.

Dr. Flattau recently returned to her roots in visual perception by briefing Sigma Xi Annual Meeting participants in 2021 on the mathematics of Paul Klee’s art, featuring an original tapestry she completed that year. “There is an inherent “measurement” connection between the design and production of handwoven tapestries which I look forward to pursuing in the coming years.”

Traci Hall, 1992-94 Executive Branch Fellow, U.S Agency for International Development, Bureau for Research and Development

Dr. Hall earned her B.S. in biochemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her Ph.D. in pharmacology and molecular sciences from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She was a AAAS S&T Policy Fellow with the U.S. Agency for International Development and a postdoctoral fellow with Professor Daniel J. Leahy at Johns Hopkins before joining the NIEHS in 1998. She served as acting Lab Chief for the NIEHS Laboratory of Structural Biology from 2012–2014. Currently, Dr. Hall serves as the Acting Deputy Chief and Principal Investigator in the Epigenetics and Stem Cell Biology Laboratory at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).