Learn more about ESAL Executive Director Taylor Spicer's experience at the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Annual Conference in Phildelphia, PA in May 2026.

This July, ESAL is offering a way for you to take your learning to the next level by connecting with other civic-minded people in STEM. We will host our first learning cohort for The Toolkit from July 6th to 31st, 2026. Participants in the cohort get access to the course materials week by week and receive access to weekly discussion sessions to go deeper.

​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.

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.

Jennifer Boehme is a marine scientist and advisor at the International Joint Commission in Windsor, Ontario, which is a commission of the U.S. and Canada that has oversight of border waters. She attended a city council meeting to understand local priorities for sustainable development, green infrastructure, and mass transit.

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.