Emily LoBraico earned her doctorate in human development and family studies from Penn State this March. Says Greg Fosco, Associate Director of the Edna Bennett Pierce Research Center, “her rigorous research program has not only addressed key gaps in our understanding of etiology of adolescent substance use and antisocial behavior, but she has also always worked with an eye toward application in real-world settings.” While at Penn State, she participated in the Prevention and Methodology Training (PAMT) program as a pre-doctoral fellow, where she received formal and informal training and mentoring in prevention science and innovative statistical methods.

LoBraico just started a new position at Mathematica Policy Research in Princeton, New Jersey as a Researcher in Human Services, which covers several areas, including family support, justice, and employment. She will work primarily on projects related to family support, focusing on evaluating and improving upon programs and their implementation in the real world. She recently shared her thoughts on being a graduate student and how PAMT was a “game-changer” for her.

1.     As you reflect upon your graduate school experience, what advice would you give someone just starting out on their experience?

In terms of adjusting to the challenges of graduate training, I would say to trust yourself and your ideas, and to resist the urge to compare yourself to other students. Follow your own interests but be open to expanding into new areas and working with different people.

I would also say to make sure you spend time doing other things rather than focusing solely on graduate school. Someone gave me the advice to treat graduate school like a job, and that helped me create boundaries and a really healthy work-life balance that has been essential to my wellbeing throughout these 6 years!

2.     While at Penn State, how did you gain real-world implementation experience in addition to your research program?

My independent line of research has focused on adolescent problem behavior development in the family system and family-based preventive interventions for adolescent substance use. While I was in PAMT, I wrote an NIH F31 grant application, and I was awarded the grant in the summer of 2019. Between PAMT and my F31, I had the time to really focus on my interests and gain additional training in applied realms of prevention science which has been a game-changer for me.

I worked with Janet Welsh and the PROSPER State Team for approximately 2 years to gain applied program implementation experience. This has involved writing content for PROSPER’s new website to reach a diverse audience of stakeholders. [PROSPER — short for Promoting School-Community-University Partnerships for Enhancing Resilience, is an evidence-based universal prevention system for preventing risky behaviors by middle school students.] I also adapted and developed PROSPER training materials for new members of the state and local teams to make them more useful for wide-scale dissemination and practice and I assisted in delivering the PROSPER training materials to new local team leaders and technical assistance providers through webinar format.

3.     What aspects of graduate school have been most gratifying for you?

I have really enjoyed the process of growth that I have experienced. I took a few risks that paid off, and in the end, I have become very confident. I feel like it was the challenges I put myself up to that really pushed me to accomplish more than I would have ever expected myself to be capable of. I owe much of this to my advisor, Greg Fosco, who saw through my self-doubt and sought many opportunities for me that he knew I was capable of when I wasn’t so sure of myself, especially during my early graduate school years. Working with Greg and having conversations about how to support real adolescents and families definitely helped me realize that I am a more applied scientist and that I wanted to pursue an applied research position.

4.     How has PAMT shaped your career aspirations?

PAMT completely altered my career aspirations by providing opportunities for me to actually talk to people in many different roles in many different types of contexts. It can be challenging to network outside of academia when still in graduate school, but PAMT had many pro-seminar topics and invited guests from outside of academia, many of whom had actually gone through PAMT, too.

5.     What are you looking forward to the most about your new job?

I think what I am looking forward to most is being part of a mission-driven organization that impacts real peoples’ lives. I am also excited to work in such a collaborative team-based environment because I find this type of work to be both challenging and really rewarding.