Lauren Shaffer: Growing a Career in Public Policy

Name: Lauren Shaffer

Preferred Pronouns: She/Her

Hometown & Current Town: Mechanicsburg, PA/Lancaster, PA

Graduation Year: BS 2020, MPS 2022

Major & Minor: BS Community, Environment, and Development

Additional Degree: MPS Ecosystem Management and Administration

Current Professional Title: Acting Policy Director

Name of Employer: Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture

Brief Description of Your Role: I work in the Policy Office where I started as a William and Hannah Penn Fellow. I then became an Executive Policy Specialist and am currently Acting Director.

The Policy Office is a think tank and a problem solver. We look to improve programs, issues, and laws, and create new programs and laws when needed. We serve as the connector and convener with stakeholders and the agricultural industry, and we keep a close eye on all the current issues and look for opportunities to pursue.

Why did you choose Penn State?

I grew up in Pennsylvania and Penn State was always a positive presence. I went to football games and my family members were fans. I did not grow up on a farm or in agriculture. When I was in high school, I was exposed to a lot of opportunities that made me interested in agriculture and the environment. Penn State, being the land-grant university in the state, was really the place to go so that I could learn more about that world and be connected with opportunities I wouldn't have otherwise been aware of.

The alumni network was also a huge draw for me. Even now, working in Pennsylvania agriculture, I meet Penn State alumni all the time. I find that I'm always running into people that I went to school with in professional settings so it was great for developing valuable connections.

What inspired you to pursue your degree?

Even though I work in agriculture now, I've always had a general interest and passion for the environment and how people interact with it. Those intersections are what the Community, Environment, and Development major was about.

It was not a science-heavy degree. It was more focused in the social sciences, which aligns with my work in policy. I've always been curious about how policy could solve land use issues, especially when I got involved with the state Envirothon. We also had mentors in Envirothon who were alumni of the program.

Why would you encourage prospective students to pursue the CED major?

It's such a flexible degree. There are so many different career paths that you can pursue from it. I would also say that I felt it was unique because we had a lot of projects that weren't just academic focused like taking exams and writing papers. CED gave me the opportunity to explore different aspects of the environment, land use, and agriculture through hands-on projects with real organizations. It wasn't just about learning concepts—it was about applying them to real issues, which prepared me for my career.

We also had professors who had not just been in academia for their entire careers. They had come from working in industry, at nonprofits, or in Extension. I think the variety of opportunities that CED presents and the way that it makes you think about the world is a huge asset for any student who is dialed into those social aspects of the environment and agriculture.

Could you highlight your career path and share how you got interested in working in government?

When I was at Penn State, I did two internships. The first one was with the PA Department of Environmental Protection in the Chesapeake Bay Office. The second one was at the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau. I tried to balance those two different sides to government, the one being the regulatory state agency with a bureaucratic perspective and the other being the farmer advocacy, grassroots perspective.

I really enjoyed both and I learned a lot. I realized though that I had a long way to go with learning more about the industry and the issues before getting into a policy role. My first job out of college was actually with Penn State Extension in the Agriculture and Environment Center. In that role I was working down here in south central Pennsylvania with a focus on Chesapeake Bay issues, water quality, and working with farmers to help administer grant funding for conservation, sharing best management practices, and working with watershed partnerships and stakeholders. That helped me get a solid footing regarding the way farmers interact with programs, where there are opportunities, and making connections with all the different players.

After that I went back to DEP where I was a Conservation District Field Representative. I served as a liaison between DEP and the county conservation districts, helping them with interpreting policy and any issues they had with their contracts with the DEP or the funding we were administering through them. That was great because it really helped me understand the state government functions at the bureau level.

After that, the William and Hannah Penn Fellowship opportunity opened and I’ve been here ever since. All of that experience working in industry and with farmers helped me build a solid foundation for being able to do good public policy.

What clubs and organizations were you involved in?

I was in Collegiate Farm Bureau, Ag Student Council, Sigma Alpha, and CED Club.

Did you study abroad as a student?

I did a Maymester in Sweden. It was an Environmental Resource Management course on the Chesapeake Bay with Matt Royer. We did a few weeks in Sweden, and we compared the Chesapeake Bay with the Baltic Sea in regard to nutrient pollution from farms. It was such an amazing experience and I felt that I took a lot of that knowledge that I gained back with me and utilized it in my career.

Why would you recommend studying abroad to current students?

I think there is so much that we can learn from other countries about how they handle the same issues as us, or there might be issues that they’re facing that we haven’t yet, and it can help us to get ahead of it. I think those international connections are interesting and really broaden your perspective.

What is a favorite Penn State memory?

I couldn't think of any one specific memory. I think the general times where I would be walking around Ag Hill with my friends or my now husband, and going to the creamery or football games. There were times in classes, because my major was small and tight knit, where we would get really passionate and into projects. That general feeling of being in a tight knit community because the college itself is a small community within Penn State is my favorite memory.

How has your Penn State education influenced your career or life?

The CED major helped me to learn to think outside the box and be tapped into real world issues. The professors were great mentors. They helped guide me toward opportunities that I never would have been aware of and opened my eyes to what the possibilities were for careers. You don’t know until you know, and all of that guidance was extremely helpful for me. I had a lot of good advice to get involved with different opportunities and pursue internships. Penn State Career Services was also great with helping me with interview preparation.

What has been the best advice you've ever received?

A piece of advice I've heard time and time again is to be a lifelong learner. I really take that to heart. I think there's always new information that we can discover, and there’s always a new idea or perspective that we can understand better.

What collegiate advice or professional development tip would you give to a current student?

Something that served me extremely well at Penn State was taking advantage of opportunities. Anything from the career fair and clubs to being aware of conferences that are out there on topics and careers you might be interested in and going to them, doing job shadows when you're home on break, and networking a lot. I met so many of the people that I work with now and that are in my network when I was still a student. Building those connections and that knowledge base about the world you want to work in while you're still in college is really important. Get outside the campus bubble. That will serve you very well.

Why are you proud to be a Penn State Ag Sciences alum?

The College of Ag Sciences has such an amazing reputation, not just as an educational institution, but also as a resource to the agricultural industry through extension.

I run into College of Ag Science alums all the time. When you hear that someone went to Penn State, it's an immediate connection. You know that person has a good educational foundation and that they're passionate about Pennsylvania agriculture. That continues to motivate me and it's nice to see there are other people out there like me working toward the same goals.