Crafting effective policy is a team effort. While legislators draft the laws, advocacy organizations play a vital role in the lawmaking process by evaluating policies and recommending revisions and new ideas.
UT Austin students and alumni gathered at the LBJ School last Tuesday to discuss the critical role of legislative advocacy in policymaking and to explore advocacy career opportunities in the nonprofit sector. Panelists discussed their personal experiences working in legislative advocacy through nonprofits and shared tips on squeezing the most out of the graduate school experience.
The panel included LBJ alumni Awais Azhar, Executive Director at HousingWorks Austin, alongside Peggy Kemp, Operations and Strategic Initiatives Specialist at Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, and Maritza Kelley, board member for the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Director of External Affairs for PFM. Co-hosted by the LBJ School and the RGK Center, the event was moderated by Evan Wolstencroft, a current MPAff student at LBJ who is involved with the Nonprofit Studies Portfolio program and currently serves as Program Manager for Texas Rural Funders.
A large part of an advocacy organization’s role is to ensure public policies are serving the public effectively, Kemp said.
“There’s the legislative policymakers, and then there’s the boots on the ground [or] the people that have to enact, and do the things,” said Kemp. “We sit in the middle, we’re able to watch.”
Kemp explained that organizations like Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute are skilled at providing lawmakers with feedback on what’s working and what isn’t. This feedback can help to identify which initiatives require more funding, which should be scaled back, and which may need to be discontinued altogether.
The skills required for this work can be cultivated early, even before completing your degree, panelists said. They shared how their involvement in LBJ organizations like the Pride Policy Alliance (formerly the Harvey Milk Society), the Policy Alliance for Communities of Color, and the RGK Center’s Nonprofit Studies Portfolio program, along with internships and mentorships, equipped them with crucial skills and networks for their future careers.
Azhar highlighted one of the most valuable lessons he will carry forward from LBJ: what he learned in his Nonprofit Studies Portfolio class on managing volunteers.
“[It] was one of the best management classes I took because what it really taught me is how to deal with people,” he said. “Managing people, more than anything else, all your beautiful Excel spreadsheets will go out the window and emotions will settle in.”
Kelley also emphasized the value of the faculty and peer connections she made while in school.
“Lean into your curious selves and ask as many people as many questions about how they plan to apply this degree,” she said. “Your worldview will keep expanding as well as your possibilities.”
When a student in the audience sought advice for those interested in legislative advocacy careers, the panelists left the audience with valuable insights:
“Know that regardless of what policy area you came to study, there are others. You need to avail yourself to those others and then try to imagine how your policy area would fit in. I think a lot about housing, because that feeds right into mental health.” – Peggy Kemp
“The legislative session missed this entire last 20 years of managerial transformation. If you want to see the conditions your parents worked under, that's the managerial style you will experience in the legislature. I want you all to go in with eyes wide open.” – Maritza Kelley
“Keep your ethical, informed alignment moving forward and don’t lose that, while also being flexible enough to understand that you’re not going to achieve 100 percent of what you want every time, and you have to work with other partners to meet in the middle.” – Awais Azhar
