Posts in: Leadership in Action

Dr. Daniel Swain is a climate scientist and author of Weather West, a blog where he shares information and insights into weather and climate patterns in the western U.S., with a particular focus on California. Daniel started Weather West in 2006, and now it reaches over a million readers a year. We worked with Daniel when he was a 2015 Switzer Fellow, and are excit...

Earlier this fall, I attended the Our Ocean conference held by the State Department in Washington, DC. I was fortunate enough to be selected to cover the event on social media and had a first row seat to hear amazing speakers like President Obama, Secretary John Kerry, and other world leaders, and witness global commitments to ocean health. I was blown away by...

Sergio Avila leads collaborative efforts on connectivity for wildlife, and habitat restoration and conservation in northwest Sonora and southeast Arizona. He has found his niche as a bridge between cultures, languages and approaches to the conservation of biodiversity in the US-Mexico border. We asked Sergio to share his thoughts with us about his experience as a W...

On Tuesday, June 20, 2017, the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative (JOCI) held a Capitol Hill briefing titled ‘An Ocean Agenda for Congress’. The event brought together an eminent group of panelists to speak to opportunities for Congress on ocean issues—from infrastructure to economic development to environmental protection—and drew on JOCI’s efforts over t...

Earlier this spring, COMPASS led a policy communications training for the Switzer Fellows in Washington, D.C. that included practicing communication skills and learning about the world of policymakers, and was capped by meetings with policymakers on Capitol Hill. The Switzer Fellowship, a program of the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation, provides academic supp...

We’re excited to share stories from scientists in their own words. This guest post is by Barbara Spiecker, a graduate student at Oregon State University (OSU). Barbara recently participated in a ‘Making Your Science Matter’ graduate seminar I teach each winter at OSU. Our staff, past and present, provide services such as graduate courses, seminars, and 1:1 co...