Sociologist Melanie Stansbury talks about the importance of connecting scientists with policy decision makers and shares her reasons for running for the New Mexico state legislature.

​Tim Oolman is an engineer with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering who lives in Charleston, South Carolina. He told us about attending a City Council meeting and a State of the City address to learn more about his home.

ESAL Founder Arti Garg writes about how her work with a municipal task force showed her the connection between local litter abatement and San Francisco Bay health. She encourages readers to learn the role their local government plays in the science policy issues that matter to them.

Ryan Coogan wrote to ESAL about participating in a nuclear engineering student delegation in Texas, where students met with politicians and nuclear industry stakeholders to discuss safety and security, environmental impacts, and politics.

In this month’s Postcard, Terra White, PhD in Neurobiology & Behavior, wrote about her organization at University of California, Irvine., and the public forum they hosted last January, which 100 people attended.

How locally engaged are STEM professionals? We surveyed them to find out.
In fall 2017 we launched our Civic Engagement Survey to gauge attitudes and engagement with all levels of government by people with STEM backgrounds. We’re excited to reveal the results of our survey, available here.

Holly Williams believes outreach experiences are the perfect way to cut your teeth on community engagement. She has volunteered at the California Academy of Sciences as a science educator for nearly two years now. In this month's Story, she describes how she leveraged her STEM background in small ways and still made a big impact.

In the second part of this month's "Postcard", Arti Garg describes a follow-up discussion she had with her city's economic development manager after offering public comments at a city council committee meeting. She wrote a one-page summary proposing that the city prioritize cleantech hardware in its development plan.

In this month’s “Postcard”, Arti Garg describes delivering public comments at a city council committee meeting.

Environmental geochemist and ESAL Alaska Chapter Lead Kendra Zamzow shares her experience effecting change in state policy. She participated in a technical working group for Alaska's Department of Environmental Conservation to provide evidence-based recommendations for updated regulatory protections against contaminants in fishing waters.

In this month's "Postcard", Rachna Handa describes how she attended a public workshop for her county's community choice energy aggregator. She walked away from this all-day public forum and panel discussion motivated and energized to take part in local decision-making.

In this month's "Stories from the Field", we talked to Thomas Beatty, an assistant research professor in astronomy at Pennsylvania State University who is skilled at charting distant worlds. He applies some of the same STEM principles to the more down-to-earth subject of gerrymandering, which has been the subject of recent court rulings and ongoing political debate.