Heather Buschman
Heather Buschman, PhD, enjoys making science accessible to non-scientists. She earned her PhD in molecular pathology at UC San Diego School of Medicine and completed a communications internship at the National Cancer Institute. She spent her first years away from the research bench in various communications roles at Scripps Research, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute and NuVasive. She is currently Assistant Director of Communications and Media Relations at UC San Diego Health Sciences, where she translates research findings into lay-friendly stories in the form of press releases, newsletter articles, magazine pieces, podcast episodes and more. Heather also continues to freelance, writing articles for a variety of clients, and she teaches a science writing course at UC San Diego Extension. She has won awards from the Association of American Medical Colleges, Health Care Communicators and PR Daily, and was named one of San Diego Metro’s “40 Under 40” in 2019.
Can you describe your academic and professional background? What path led you to pursue this field?
I was always interested in science. For many years, thanks to the educational series Voyage of the Mimi, I wanted to be a marine biologist. Instead, I earned my PhD studying bacteria, how they establish infections and how the innate immune system responds. I loved that experience — mostly because I was in a fabulously supportive lab — but I realized a few years in that I didn’t like working at the bench as much as I liked making presentations, writing grant proposals and things like that. I would get sucked in, lose track of time, and feel a great sense of accomplishment from those types of projects, in a way that I didn’t when doing experiments at the bench.
What I didn’t realize early on, and it’s probably partly because I went straight from undergrad to graduate school, is that you don’t often get a sense of accomplishment from doing scientific research. And what I eventually learned about myself is that while I am very willing to put in long hours/days/weeks, I do want something to show for it in the end. You don’t always get that with research, because not everything is in your control — sometimes cells die unexpectedly!
During grad school I found my way to science writing and communication. I took the Science Writing I course at UC San Diego Extension (the same class I now teach!). I looked for freelancing opportunities. And I took a six-month leave of absence for an internship in the press office at the National Cancer Institute. When I returned, I finished up my PhD and looked for any sort of job related to science communication.
How did you find this particular position, and what was the hiring process like? Is there a typical structure for this in your field?
I have my current job in part due to networking. In a previous position, I started organizing lunches for my peers, a handful of fellow public information officers covering science at institutions around the Torrey Pines Mesa (e.g., UC San Diego, Salk, Scripps Research). So a few years later, when my current supervisor — who had been part of that group — had an opening, he thought of me.
For jobs in science communication, first and foremost you need to show that you can write for a general audience. It’s not enough simply to know the science. After that, I can’t emphasize the importance of networking enough. And I don’t just mean going to events with nametags and awkward conversation. Tell everyone you know inside and outside of science — your friends, former classmates, hairdresser, airplane seatmates — what you’re interested in. Find people with interesting jobs on LinkedIn and invite them to coffee or a quick phone call for an informational interview. You’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll become known for that thing, and how happy people will be to recommend you and share information with you.
Can you tell us about your current responsibilities? What is a typical day or week like in your role?
I think of my current responsibilities as falling into two main buckets — owned media and earned media. My team produces a lot of content for communications channels owned by UC San Diego Health Sciences. By that I mean all of our websites, newsletters, magazines, blogs, social media channels, etc. We also pitch story ideas and experts to external media outlets — that’s our earned media.
There is no typical day or week, and that’s part of what I love about it. At any given time, I may have five to 10 projects in the works, all at various stages of setting up interviews, drafting, reviewing, editing, pitching, etc. And you never know when some sort of breaking news will make it necessary to throw out all of the day’s plans to instead coordinate media interviews on a whole new topic.
What do you enjoy about your current job and work environment?
I love that I get to learn about all kinds of leading-edge science and talk to interesting people, then find creative ways of telling their stories and amplifying their work.
To make it even better, I get to do all that with the support of a fantastic team. There are seven of us on the communications team for UC San Diego Health Sciences. We all bring different skills and we each cover different “beats” within the organization, yet we are always there to support and cheer on one another.
What are some of the challenging aspects of your job? Is there anything you wish you had known about your job or industry before joining?
One of the most challenging aspects of my job is that I’m naturally an introvert, yet I often need to call people up, ask for feedback, lead meetings and do lots of other extrovert-type things. It can be intimidating at first, but I think, like anything else, you can get better with practice.
Be open to starting “small”— your first job may not be your dream job, but if you make the most of it, it might turn out to be better than you expected, or a great stepping stone to your next job offer. Treat your job description as a starting point and take on new responsibilities to grow your role — don’t wait to be asked. Find mentors.
Get to know how job titles vary in your field. For example, the terms might be used interchangeably, but “technical writer,” “medical writer,” and “science writer” are all different things. And, just to complicate things further, often those are the skills you bring, while the title you find in a job search might be completely different. You might bring those skills to a job called “communications manager” or “public information officer.” Also, you should know that it’s not always apples-to-apples when you compare titles between companies — a “director” in one place might be a “coordinator” in another.
Do you have any professional plans for the future?
Well, it’s hard to say. At the moment, I enjoy what I do so much that I don’t really want it to change. At some point perhaps I’ll end up leading my own communications team of some sort, but for now I enjoy being in the thick of my own projects.
What’s changing in your industry? Are there any future trends we should be aware of?
Traditional newsrooms are shrinking. But there’s still a demand for accurate, trustworthy science news and information. I think more and more that need is being filled by the institutions themselves, like UC San Diego. Now with COVID-19, I’m optimistic that more employers will be open to remote workers, and that’ll open up many more opportunities to work for institutions and publications no matter where you live.
What activities, internships, or organizations would you recommend someone get involved with to help them break into this field?
Writing isn’t a profession — you don’t need a degree or special certification to do it. So just do it! If you need permission, here it is: Dear reader, you are hereby blessed to call yourself a science writer!
Get started by launching your own blog, tweeting, pitching story ideas to outlets you admire, volunteering to write newsletter articles for an organization to which you belong. It’s all resume-building.
Also, I might be biased, but I highly recommend taking my Science Writing I course at UC San Diego Extension. We cover all kinds of things that are useful for people exploring new career options and for scientists who just want to communicate better with the media, government officials, donors and other members of the general public. I also recommend joining the San Diego Science Writers Association, aka SANDSWA (another disclosure: I’m on the board!). We hold regular happy hours and workshops and our monthly member newsletter is packed with events, tips, job openings and more. What’s more, if you become a member, you are welcome to contribute to the SANDSWA blog.
Is it common for people in your field to have a scientific/academic background (i.e. have PhDs)? Can you think of any advantages or disadvantages someone with a PhD might experience while pursuing or working in your field?
It varies. I’m the only person on my team with a PhD. But in other places, it’s often 50-50. Scientists have to learn to write and writers have to learn the science. There are many paths to science communication. But I will say that if you don’t want to do bench research long-term, don’t do a postdoc after you get your PhD — in most cases it won’t really benefit a career in science communication. It would be more worthwhile to spend those same years getting experience in what you do want to do.
One disadvantage PhDs have when writing for the general public: We tend to get too bogged down in the weeds. I have to constantly remind myself to keep the big-picture in view, and focus on only what’s most important to get the main points across without losing my audience.
Do you have any final words of advice for those navigating these career questions? Is there anything you would have done differently given what you know now?
I wouldn’t change a thing! I enjoyed earning my PhD, and I’m also glad I left bench research. I think we learn something from everything we do. And in the end, you have to be happy doing what you do all day, so don’t feel like you have to follow someone else’s benchmarks for “success.”
Good luck and feel free to reach out to me: hbuschman@health.ucsd.edu / Twitter: @HeatherBuschman
