Josh Lawler, Ph.D. is a Professor of Environmental and Forest Sciences and Co-Director, Center for Creative Conservation at the University of Washington. In November 2016, he got a call from the state of Washington’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC), a legislative office that provides nonpartisan analysis, which led to a rare chance to do research that directly informed state policy.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) featured an interview with ESAL Founder & Chair, Arti Garg, in the Mar-Apr issue of Fellowship Focus, the newsletter of the Science & Technology Policy Fellowships (STPF). The interview is reprinted here with permission.