Biophysicist Leah Cairns was a voter protection volunteer in the 2020 election as part of a "ballot curing" team in North Carolina. She shares her thoughts on how engaging locally can help fight voter suppression.

ESAL volunteer Rachel Burckhardt is a microbiologist and science communicator in Bethesda, Maryland. She wrote about volunteering as a poll worker for the first time in the 2020 election, amid extra precautions due to COVID-19.

The AGU's Thriving Earth Exchange program connects communities with scientists to develop community science programs tackling natural hazards, resources, and climate change. These projects are driven by the philosophy that all communities should have access to science.

Ian Simon serves as an elected commissioner of his Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC), part of a unique system that gives voice to neighborhoods across D.C. Simon talked to ESAL about translating his federal policy experience to tackle local housing, education, and business issues.

U.S. Digital Response (USDR) is an all-volunteer movement established to fill the technology gap for local governments battling the COVID-19 crisis. ESAL interviewed Yung, the CEO of USDR, about their continuing efforts to assist governments across state and municipal jurisdictions.

Jim Treglio is a retired materials scientist who mobilized a Community Emergency Response Team program in San Diego. Treglio shared his experience using his technical background to work with the local fire department and how scientists can contribute to community response efforts.

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 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.

Derek Stanford is a statistician and data scientist, aka an unusual candidate for the state legislature. But by the time he filed to run in 2010, he had spent a decade volunteering with advocacy groups and political campaigns and learning in depth about policy areas where he wanted to make a difference. He believes that government would benefit if more STEM professionals chose to get involved.