Jessica Barker
Senior-career (10+ years)
INTEREST AREAS
Climate change mitigation, Farmed animal welfare, Global health & development, Global mental health & well-being, Wild animal welfare
Full-time
TYPE OF ROLE
ARE YOU OPEN TO REMOTE WORKING?
Yes
CURRENTLY BASED IN
United States
OTHER INTEREST AREAS
EMAIL:
LINKEDIN:
TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOU...
I'm a behavioral scientist with 10 years’ post-PhD experience designing and testing interventions related to environmental sustainability and public health. I've worked in a top behavioral science consultancy (the Behavioural Insights Team), the public sector (I was Data Lead for the Alaska state government's COVID vaccine task force) and private sector (I'm currently Senior Behavioral Scientist at a health tech startup).
WHAT CONSIDERATIONS GUIDE YOU IN DECIDING HOW YOU WOULD LIKE TO SPEND YOUR CAREER? HOW DO YOU PRIORITIZE OR WEIGH THESE?
A high priority is finding a role where I can have high social impact (and I loosely subscribe to 80,000 Hours’ definition). Since I am mid-career, a big consideration is how I can use the skills I have gained so far in the most impactful way I can.
I have learned from experience that I have a threshold for work-life balance below which my mental health suffers, so this places a boundary on any impact-driven career decisions.
WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IDEAL ROLES FOR YOU, WHAT ARE SOME
KEY CHARACTERISTICS?
A role related to behavior change, which is critical in so many different cause areas: two I have worked on previously are encouraging plant-based food consumption and vaccine uptake. More broadly, an ideal role would involve research - especially experiments (including testing behavioral interventions) but also other elements such as surveys, secondary research - in an applied (non-academic) setting, i.e. to directly influence policies, programs, products.
IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE RECRUITERS LOOKING AT YOUR PROFILE TO KNOW?
I am currently based in the US but medium term am looking to relocate to Europe (and have US/UK dual citizenship).
