Interview with Mark Hagerty

Mark Hagerty, MS, is the 2024 Program Committee Chair and the 2023 president of the AMWA Northern California chapter.

What initially inspired your interest in pursuing a scientific field?

That goes all the way back to young childhood. I always loved science. I’m a boomer, so I grew up when the space program was brand new. My dad was an engineer and my mom was a nurse, so we had a lot of technical and science stuff all around us when we were growing up. I think my mother’s medical background was a big influence on me. When I went to school, I studied psychology because I wanted to learn about the software [what directs the operation of the body], but I also doubled in biology and I specialized in human biology, so I know a little bit about the hardware [how the body functions] too.

What attracted you to medical writing? And, after that, what made you continue to want to be a medical writer?

I didn’t even know there was such a thing as medical writing until I was sixty years old. I had been working in instructional design, teaching, and training for years and years. I said, “Well, if I’m not winding down, maybe something can be changed.” At the time it was very easy to get laid off as an instructional designer, it was sort of a freelance kind of thing. Then I stumbled onto this thing called medical writing, and I said, “What is that, because that sounds great.” I found AMWA and joined them.

I thought I had better learn more about what this work is all about. That’s when I discovered at the University of Chicago Graham School and completed their certificate program in Medical Writing and Editing. In the meantime, I was looking for another gig to help pay the bills. Then, the week before the program started, I got a new full-time job at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. So, on the same day that I started the program, I went to my very first orientation day at my new job, then came home that night and started my writing program at the University of Chicago. The first six months were pretty intense. But I enjoyed doing both of them and met a lot of great colleagues through the University of Chicago. The work that I did at University of Chicago actually helped me secure a good position, and I became the liaison for the biosafety area of the lab.

My whole plan for creating a whole new career sort of waned down because I was just working so much at the full-time gig. I thought, this is working, there will always be time to do the other thing [medical writing] later. I had two or three clients. But people were looking for someone that could work with for six months and I was thinking, I don’t have a full-time six months to give to you. Nothing was meshing properly. Just this year I’ve gone to part-time at the laboratory so that I can put a little more time into the freelance kind of thing at my own pace.

What have you found the most rewarding about your time with AMWA?

Can I give you a trite answer? The community aspect of it, the people are just all really nice. I don’t know if you read Engage [the AMWA message board] regularly, but almost all of the time now there are all of these “I’m brand new to medical writing, I’m coming off of a career in patient care or veterinary or pharma or pharmacy” or name whatever it is. You’d think after a couple of years of that, people of Engage would start saying, “Hey, you should go back and search everything first before you ask the question.” But people are not. They’re saying, “Welcome, welcome to the fray, come on in, let’s do this, here are some good resources you should start with.” People are just genuine and real and all there to be helpful. That was a surprise to me, and a very pleasant surprise.

What inspired the theme of this year’s PCC?

We haven’t been able to do any programs live since 2018. When we came together, we said, “This entire world is going through a dramatic shift in how we do the work.” And I’ve heard so much anxiety and angst over AI over the past year and half, that I thought, what would be helpful to the membership, and to anybody else that wants to join us, might be let’s look forward and see where this might actually be going, what is our near future industry going to look like. So, that’s where I came up with that theme.

What are your thoughts on the future of medical communications?

I think the future is bright. Last month I was at a conference for training people across the different agencies and laboratories as a part of the Department of Energy. One of the people sort of summed your question up. He said, “You know what, I don’t think AI will take your job. But the people who embrace AI within their jobs will be the ones who take the job from the people who do not embrace AI.” In other words, “Get used to using those tools.” I sort of flashed back and thought this is kind of like being in the 70’s and people saying, “I’m not going to use one of those newfangled computers, I’ll just stick with my typewriter.” That went well. The people who take advantage of the latest technologies will be able to move faster and do higher quality work than the people who don’t. I think we have new tools and the ways we work will be shifting and changing for a couple of years, and then we will see where our industry lands. I’m very optimistic that it will be in a good place and medical writers will be in more demand than ever.

What are you looking forward to the most at the PCC?

The thing I’m looking forward to are all of the speakers and guests we have coming, all of the people throughout AMWA and beyond. We have Alex Howson, who is the podcast queen. She is going to be working on several things, including some wellness stuff for us. We’ll have another board member and freelance worker expert, Genevieve Walker. The thing I like is that they’re all coming from the western region of the country, so it’s really the Pacific coast conference. And there’s Shane Lamba who is going to talk about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. All of these things are going to become bigger parts of what we do. I’m just so looking forward to hearing all of these sessions.

About Mark Hagerty: These days, Mark applies his three decades of Learning and Development experience advancing organizational development at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. He also has a freelance medical editing business called Biomedical Writing Services.

Mark did his undergraduate studies in psychology and biology at the California State University in Hayward. He earned a Master of Science degree in Organizational Behavior from the California School of Professional Psychology. He also holds a Master’s certificate in Online Instructional Design from Capella University, and most recently received a Medical Writing and Editing certificate from the University of Chicago’s Graham School.

He has a huge desire to serve others and an insatiable curiosity about biology and behavior. He also enjoys word puzzles of all sorts.