TITLE: Influencing policy through engineers authoring op-eds

ABSTRACT: Have you ever wondered how opinion pieces find their way to publication in prestigious newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, or Wall Street Journal? Or how about publication your own hometown newspaper? An op-ed, an abbreviation for opinion-editorial, is, “a short newspaper column that represents a writer’s strong, informed, and focused opinion on an issue of relevance to a targeted audience,” (Wikipedia). And these are the key adjectives: strong, informed, focused, and targeted. The Engineering and Public Policy Division of the American Society for Engineering Education is one of the largest Divisions in the organization. And yet it is mostly a “secondary” Division for most of its members. Policy seems like an important item about which one should be informed, but it is not necessarily a subject around which most engineers feel entirely comfortable. The solution: forge ahead with placing your views in the public realm for consideration and to grow your influence on public policy as an engineer. This webinar will share the non-expert, trial-by-fire approach to writing op-eds developed by one engineer (see: https://muckrack.com/daniel-oerther).

 BIO: Dan Oerther is the Executive Director of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists and a Professor of Environmental Health Engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. Previously, Dan was a Senior Science Advisor in the Secretary’s Office of Global Food Security at the United States Department of State, and he is currently the Chair of the Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Commission, and he previously served as Vice Chair of the Phelps County Extension Council, an example of a hyper-local elected position.