In Adventures
at the Science-Policy Interface, Dr. Brooke Hemming, Sr. Physical
Scientist, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), gave the “lecture
I wished I’d heard as a graduate student.” Dr. Hemming discussed the role scientists play in public
policy, developed through her exemplary work with the interdisciplinary team
charged with establishing the scientific foundation for “criteria”
air pollutant limits via synthesis of data with emergent understanding of atmospheric
science and the acute and long-term impacts of exposure to human health and
ecosystems. But she also used the Thursday, March 28, 2019 Women in Scientific and Environmental
Professions lecture to outline different science career paths and
preparatory opportunities.
Dr. Hemming first discussed four main
career areas for a professional in the sciences: 1) academic research, 2)
non-profit research, assessment, and advocacy, 3) government research and/or
assessment, and 4) government policy analysis and/or development. On the
subject of her career area (government research and/or assessment), she
acknowledged that her projects and deadlines are pre-determined for her, and
that her work is subject to considerable public scrutiny because she is a
public servant.
Dr. Hemming offered the advice that
when choosing a career path, ask yourself three things:
1)
What are your talents and skills?
2)
What do you want to be doing on most
days of your week?
3)
Own who you are, what you have to
offer, and what you need to be happy before you start making major career
decisions.
Dr. Hemming advised those interested
in environmental policy is to learn the issues of most concern to science
advocates, and to take advantage of education-oriented opportunities to work
directly with policymakers.
Dr. Hemming went on to talk about an
organization she has previously worked, the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS), and her time as an Environmental Science and
Policy Fellow at the organization. Over the course of her time at the AAAS, she
visited countries like Mexico and Russia to meet with members of government and
local scientists to discuss the state of the climate in those countries.
The next part of Dr. Hemming’s lecture
was on the role of the EPA in policy formulation, which includes: 1) responding
to Congress and 2) assessing & reporting on the state of the science
relevant to environmental policy. She described the role of Congress as having
the power to confirm the EPA leadership, set budgets for the EPA, and create
new offices within the agency. She gave an example of a report to Congress she
had worked on, regarding assessment of black carbon particulate matter.
The National Center for Environmental
Assessment (NCEA) is the division of the EPA that primarily handles assessment
of the science relevant to environmental policy. As a member of the NCEA staff,
Dr. Hemming works to provide the interface between 3 groups employed in the
fields of policy and science: 1) researchers in other parts of the EPA’s Office
of Research and Development, 2) the larger scientific community who generate
new findings and data that inform policy, and 3) the regulators in the EPA’s
regional offices (e.g. the Office of Air and Radiation) who use that data to
make decisions to protect public health and the environment. She went on to
describe the Clean Air Act of 1970, which called for upper limits on ambient
concentrations of 6 criteria air pollutants (ozone, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides,
particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and lead), and its influence on her work.
Dr. Hemming’s office publishes its work as Integrated Science Assessments
(ISAs) that summarize the most policy-relevant science, particularly regarding
assessment of risk to human health, and the ISAs are made available to the
public online.
Dr. Hemming concluded her lecture by
providing a list of important skills that she believes are not usually
developed in graduate school, but that are essential for entering the workforce:
1)
humility (being willing to learn from your co-workers)
2)
collaborative
problem-solving (as collaboration is required for all
“fully-effective solutions”)
3)
self-awareness (knowing your own shortcomings, and how they affect your
interactions with co-workers and shareholders)
4)
listening to
your shareholders and partners
(“listen dynamically”, be engaged, sympathetic)
5)
work-life
balancing (realizing that although graduate
school doesn’t encourage a balanced life, you need to find a way to set aside
time to take care of yourself)
Since 2002, Dr. Brooke Hemming has
worked in Air Quality assessment at the Research Triangle Park campus of the US
EPA. Her training began at a community college, continued at UC Berkeley and
work at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Her doctoral research at
Stanford University was conducted at the NASA-Ames Research Center and the
Molecular Physics Laboratory at SRI International. Her post-doc in atmospheric
aerosol thermodynamics was completed at the CA Institute of Technology, and was
followed by a fellowship at AAAS. Since
joining the EPA, she has received multiple awards for her work on NAAQS
reviews, and a gold medal for her leadership and co-authorship of the assessments
that formed the basis of the Carbon Dioxide Endangerment finding that CO2
is a harmful pollutant. She is the editor of a new book series, Climate and Policy, under the Anthem
Press Environmental and Sustainability Initiative, and has served for several
years as a technical advisor on the Department of Defense Strategic
Environmental Research Program Resource Conservation and Resiliency Technical Committee,
and as an advisor on the North Carolina State Climate Change and Society
Program Advisory Board. She has also served as a science advisor to Paperhand
Puppet Intervention.
Dr. Hemming’s lecture was co-sponsored
by ESF’s Department of Chemistry and the ESF Women’s Caucus. For more
information about the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Lecture
Series, the upcoming (4/25) presentation by Denise Breitberg, Smithsonian
Ecological Research Center, please visit: https://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus/speakers.htm.
As part of the
requirements for FOR496/497 Perspectives on Career and Gender, students share
responsibility for reporting on presentations in the Women in Scientific
and Environmental Professions Speaker Series.
The preceding was prepared by Anuli Onwumelu, a MS student in the Forest and
Natural Resources Management’s Ecology and Ecosystems program of study.
