Opportunities to Change the World

Political Science Professor Matthew Hale shares his expertise with New York Post on public, private and non-profit sector careers enabling emerging leaders to become politically active.

Often sought out by the media for his expertise in public policy and New Jersey and national politics, Matthew Hale, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Affairs, spoke to nationally syndicated columnist and Monster.com career expert Vicki Salemi, for a New York Post At Work interview on what students can pursue in the political arena to prepare them for careers that could make a difference, especially during an election season. The interview, "How to Forge a Winning Career in the Political Arena" can be viewed here.

Writing well and in someone else’s voice are among the speech writer’s traits.

Hale reflected, "They’re like the catcher on the baseball team," adding "everyone runs stuff through the catcher. If the economic development department wants something in the speech, they go to the speech writer. The speech writer juggles all these priorities."

Qualities of calmness, building trust and working your way up in a campaign can take you to a top position.

Hale described the chief of staff as "The world’s most important traffic cop. The most important resource that a candidate or an elected official has is time. They cannot know everything is going on, so a chief of staff is the traffic cop saying this is important and it should go to the governor, and this is not important."

Reflecting on additional opportunities, "Often, someone will start at the bottom of a campaign and work themselves up to midrange of a government entity and then jump to lobbyist since you know the ins and outs of decisionmakers," adding that a fund-raising director is "a skill set that not everybody has – you’re asking total strangers to give money, because you asked."

A regular media commentator on New Jersey politics, Hale’s columns on New Jersey politics have appeared in the Star-Ledger, Bergen Record, Asbury Park Press, Home News as well as influential New Jersey political newsletters like InsiderNJ.com. He has served as president of the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council (NACC) and as the chair of the Nonprofit Section of NASPAA as well as a board member. He teaches numerous courses in the College of Arts and Sciences including New Jersey Politics and Government, Political and Public Sector Leadership, Public Policy Analysis, and Strategic Management and Governance. In 2022, Hale was co-editor of the Routledge Press Book Preparing Leaders in Nonprofit Organizations: Contemporary Perspectives. He is currently working on a text book about New Jersey politics and government.  

Categories: Nation and World