About the PDA

The Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) Postdoctoral Association (PDA), founded in 2007, serves and represents the approximately 300 postdoctoral fellows and 150 research associates at the School. We envision a community of productive, successful, and happy annual academic appointees at HSPH who advance the public’s health through learning, discovery, and communication. The HSPH Postdoctoral Association is not a union and does not represent individuals for the purpose of collective bargaining with any organizations. All postdocs and research associates at the School are members of the PDA, as well as the National Postdoc Association and Boston Postdoc Association. All actions by the HSPH PDA are governed by its by-laws.

The mission of the PDA is to:

  1. promote the professional enrichment, development, and training of annual academic appointees at HSPH,
  2. raise awareness about appointees in the HSPH community,
  3. represent the interests and needs of annual academic appointees to the administration and faculty of HSPH,
  4. establish a formal forum for annual academic appointees to meet and discuss issues of importance to them at HSPH, and
  5. promote interaction among appointees across the school, and to help new incoming annual academic appointees integrate into the HSPH community.