Mai Nguyen, PhD
@mai_lin_nguyen
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Policy Director at Intertribal Ag Council | Former Hill policy advisor and neuroscientist | PhD @Princeton | views own
Joined May 2013
PhD friends, I know networking can be super intimidating, but I just got SO MUCH HELP for a fellowship app from basically strangers I cold emailed months ago. In that spirit, I'm sharing my networking template for "cold emails." @AcademicChatter @FromPhDtoLife #phdlife #phdchat
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These results suggest that getting a PhD causally worsens mental health, or at least receiving psychiatric medicines. The reversal post PhD degree is particularly convincing. But the up trend among the control group is intriguing. The highly educated are in distress.
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I don’t talk science much these days, but Sam is an absolute stand up guy and a brilliant scientist to boot. He was a wonderful mentor, a thoughtful and kind collaborator, and a real ally for students and workers. Couldn’t more highly recommend!
I'm recruiting PhD students to join my new lab in Fall 2026! The Shared Minds Lab at @USC will combine deep learning and ecological human neuroscience to better understand how we communicate our thoughts from one brain to another.
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I mean part of the problem is that congressional offices are understaffed even as issues become more and more complex. The overworked and underpaid staffer is such a cliche at this point but it directly contributes to good people leaving - on average after just 3 years.
Elizabeth Warren tells reporters that “the 32-hour work week is a terrible idea.” “But do understand most of my staff hasn't seen a 32-hour work week in months and months and months, because they come in and work for the American people, hour after hour after hour”
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FWIW, I worked the equivalent of 30 hour weeks for a year as a legislative assistant and wasn’t any less productive. I got bills and approps done, meetings, memos, hearings, markup, mail, the whole 9 yards. I loved it.
Progressive Hill staff are asking for a 32-hour workweek "We write today to encourage you to consider adopting a proposal that would improve worker satisfaction, increase staff retention in Congress, and model a more sustainable approach to work on a national level."
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We just got the best gift of the holiday season, the House Modernization Subcommittee final report for the 118th Congress! Congrats to @RepBice @RepDerekKilmer @HouseAdmin and @HouseAdm_Dems on excellent work this Congress!
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I covered health, ag, tribes, nutrition, public lands, forestry, telecoms, science, and a few other things when I was on the hill. That’s considered a quite modest portfolio by House standards.
-Member pay should be higher. -They should each have more staff. No legislative staffer's portfolio should account for more than 5% of GDP. -Staffers should be paid significantly more, particularly early and mid-career.
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⚠️ Any voter who returned their ballot to the Fisher’s Landing Transit Center ballot drop box in Vancouver — at any point this weekend —should contact the Elections Division of the Clark County Auditor’s office immediately to request a replacement ballot, due to an arson at the
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So is it just impossible for women named Rosalind to get the Nobel prize or what.
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Gasp. I am so shocked oh my gosh why could women possibly be leaving academia could it be the low pay, lack of jobs, and constant mansplaining or?
we’re not quitting science, we’re quitting academia. I am still very much in science and will remain here forever
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It's also crazy to me to think that five years ago, I was paaaaainfully writing my dissertation. I could never have imagined a STEM PhD would lead me to an incredible new career on the hill and now in Native policy. #AcademicChatter #scipol #phdchat
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Working on the hill is often frustrating, stupid, dysfunctional, and frankly sometimes unfortunately odious. But it's also inspiring and full of some of the smartest, most thoughtful ppl I've gotten to work with. And every so often, you manage to do some good.
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It's been an honor and a pleasure to serve to WA-06 and my home state. I'm eternally grateful to the incredible folks at Team Kilmer and the opportunity to do work that matters.
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I have some much delayed news! After an amazing 3 years with @RepDerekKilmer, this was my first week as Policy Director for the Intertribal Agriculture Council (@IACupdate)! I'm so excited to work on Native Ag - if you are in Native and/or Ag policy, please reach out!
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Sundae bar in inconvenient place on campus, except when you show up they’ve already run out of ice cream and only have pamphlets on resilience and deep breathing left.
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Me, watching the CR drama after literally just leaving the hill last week:
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I’m very lucky because every paper “I” publish is in a fancy journal. But just bc I only publish in fancy journals doesn’t take away from people who only sometimes publish in fancy journals! Congrats to people who only sometimes manage to be fancy!
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My partner sometimes reads to me in bed, but he’ll make his own changes, like making Bartleby the Scrivener into Bartleby the Scrivener Penguin. As in, “I would prefer not to. Quack.”
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The glares I got in a neural networks workshop back in grad school when I said, “Oh okay, so this is just fancy regression but non-linear?”
One more time for the people in the back: AI is a software wrapper around machine learning, machine learning is fancy words for statistics, thanks for coming to my TED talk
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We are a well known school for jocks.
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