Advocating for the Common Good: People, Politics, Process, and Policy on Capitol Hill - Paperback

by Jane E. West (Author)

Advocating for the Common Good: People, Politics, Process, and Policy on Capitol Hill offers a rich and accessible guide to policy making in the nation's capital, beckoning us to get to the table, make our voices heard, and reinvigorate our policy making institutions. Jane E. West parts the curtains and brings us behind the scenes with a simple framework that enables both the novice and the experienced to deftly navigate the Washington maze. The four Ps--people, politics, process, and policy--are each examined with an eye toward what a successful advocate needs to know. Informed by her forty years of experience as part of the policy making apparatus in education and disability, expert interviews with those in the room where it happens, a deep dive into congressional procedures, and the scholarship on public policy, Dr. West delivers a powerful call to action. This jargon-free guide provides students, professionals, and the public with practical tools and a proven step-by-step process to both analyze existing policies and plan advocacy strategies to change policies moving forward.

Author Biography

Jane West is an independent education policy consultant based in Washington, DC. She began her policy work as an intern in the U.S. Senate for Sen. Lowell P. Weicker (R-CT) in 1983, where she went on to serve as staff director for the Subcommittee on Disability Policy of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). She has been active in policy making for over forty years, working for a range of federal government agencies as well as national organizations, including the Presidential Task Force on the HIV Epidemic, the National Council on Disability, the Social Security Administration, the U.S. Department of Education, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, the National Network of State Teachers of the Year, the Higher Education Consortium for Special Education, and the Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children.
She has written and spoken extensively on policy and advocacy in education and disability and served on the faculties of the University of San Francisco, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, and Virginia Commonwealth University, designing and teaching public policy courses.
For more information, see https: //www.janewestconsulting.com/