Susannah Petitt is a Young Voices alumni, a Social Mobility fellow in the 2024/2025 class, and recently became the Associate Director of the Strengthening Families Initiative at the University of Notre Dame.
Susannah Petitt’s Success Story Interview:
You have participated in Young Voices programming for several years now, most notably as a Social Mobility fellow in the fall of 2024. How has your writing through Young Voices impacted your career?
Young Voices gave me the ability to publish in outlets that I hadn't had the opportunity to publish in on my own, while learning how to promote myself as a thinker and writer through advanced programs like the Social Mobility Fellowship. The Social Mobility Fellowship in particular allowed me to learn how to better tell the stories behind the research. Through the fellowship I had the opportunity to interview people touched by the policies I was interested in, from education administrators to the homeless. This made me far more effective at explaining the why behind the policy change I wish to see
Your focus is primarily on family policy and workforce issues. What drew you to these issues and what do you think more people need to understand about them?
My mother was actively discouraged from going to college by her parents while I was always told to pursue education, even beyond a 4-year degree. This generational difference was confusing to me for most of my life, until economics gave me the tools to understand what had changed -- socially and economically -- between when my mom was 18 and when I was 18. Even within a generation, the opportunity set for young women changed drastically and my hope is that if I have daughters her opportunity set will be much greater than mine. But these changes can only occur if we let them. From the birth control pill to flexible work arrangements to property rights for unmarried women, innovations in medicine, labor, and policy have dramatically changed women’s lives -- all thanks to human ingenuity. I wish that more people would understand that being pro-progress, pro-unfettered entrepreneurialism is also pro-woman
How has working with Young Voices helped you bridge the gap between academic and popular writing?
I'm an economist by training and much of what we learn is to be objective and value free, focusing on which way the graph moves and what the statistical significance is. But behind the graphs and charts are important policy implications for people. Young Voices helped me take my expertise as an economist and make it more accessible. I always appreciated being told that I was too in the weeds or losing the reader. As I continue writing after my time with Young Voices, I’ve developed a sharper sense of when I’m losing the reader.
Which media placement that the Young Voices content team helped you place are you most proud of?
During the Social Mobility Fellowship I learned about the Point-in-Time Count, an annual survey of sheltered and unsheltered people who are experiencing homelessness on a single night in a given community, from one of our guest speakers. I heard about the Count just in time to sign up to volunteer in DC and then I wrote about my experience for Greater Greater Washington - a DC focused publication. This was around the time President Trump had called for the removal of homeless encampments in DC and I was able to use my first-hand account to explain why destroying encampments likely won't help the homeless in DC. This piece was more than just research and writing, but taking myself completely out of my comfort zone to go on the PIT Count. It definitely was eye opening for me, and I was really proud of how I took the stories I learned and connected them to a policy moment.
You recently started a new role as the Associate Director of the new Strengthening Families Initiative at the University of Notre Dame. What are you most excited about in this role?
NDSF is a new program at Notre Dame and so I have the unique opportunity to really build the program from the ground up and help shape its design and impact. I'm especially excited to see how we take the research ideas we have and bring them to policymakers. Notre Dame has demonstrated success in taking academic ideas and turning them into meaningful policies that continue to positively impact their communities so I have full confidence we will be able to do the same with our program. I can't wait to see what we find works and how we disseminate the ideas -- even if it takes some time to get there.
With you now working at the University of Notre Dame, and with a background in academic research, what advice would you give to young professionals hoping to pursue a similar career path?
Follow the questions without being narrow focused on the answers. The academic and intellectual life means following the rabbit holes and having your priors challenged. When you find something that keeps leading to more questions that you need to answer, run with it and write about what you find. The best academics are also prolific writers and commentators who will openly admit that they disagree with their younger self -- it's okay to not have the right answers right away as long as you are still willing to search for it. My writing was a huge part of landing me this job and I'm very thankful to Young Voices for helping me to get my thoughts out there!
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