"35 Years for the Greater Good," Feature Article, October 2008

35 years for the greater good

Advising policy makers on issues from education to national security, ASME’s Federal Fellows program marks three and a half decades of public service.

by Mary James Legatski

As Jake Stenzler sees it, “I went from being a lab-rat to being a trusted and respected policy and technical expert on terrorism risk analysis in only a few years.” Stenzler, currently an independent consultant to the Department of Homeland Security, is a former ASME Federal Fellow, who served on Capitol Hill. “No other program that I know of enables such a drastic, and beneficial, change in career course,” Stenzler said.

As the ASME Federal Fellows program observes its 35th anniversary, Stenzler is one of many program alumni who are sharing their experiences as unbiased, nonpartisan, problem-solving public policy advisors to legislators and regulators in the nation’s capital. Stenzler and others in the program contribute their technical knowledge and understanding to inform the decisions that make public policy.

During his ASME Federal Fellowship, for example, Lester K. Su, now a mechanical engineering professor at Johns Hopkins University, advised the drafters of legislation in support of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. “As both an engineer and a teacher, I am confident that the STEM legislation I worked on will be a catalyst for the next generation of engineers and scientists,” Su said. “I have a whole different perspective on how engineering research and education fit into the world at large.”

For some time, public policy makers have been aware of a knowledge gap in the type of information they receive on science and technology matters. Lack of information is not the problem. Rather, it is the difficulty for decision-makers whose expertise lies in other areas to understand technical information and to gauge its validity, credibility, and usefulness.

Rep. Robert Andrews of New Jersey, whose office hosted an ASME Federal Fellow, sees a need for the program. “The ASME Federal Fellow has been an invaluable addition to my staff,” he said. “Members of Congress benefit greatly from the inclusion of Fellows because we now have experts to consult for technical and science-based advice.”

‘THE KEY TO SOUND POLICY’

According to Rep. Heather Wilson of New Mexico, “The ASME Federal Fellows program provides an invaluable resource for members of Congress. Sifting through the vast amounts of information that are available, and being able to understand and distill that information into something that is useful is the key to developing sound policy and good legislation.”

ASME members selected to serve as Federal Fellows devote a year to working in government, providing engineering and technical advice to policy makers in Congress, federal agencies, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Over its 35-year history, the ASME Federal Fellows program and its 74 employer partners have provided 87 ASME members with the opportunity to perform a valuable public service to the nation by participating in the policy-making process.

Patrick J.A. Quinlan has served as an ASME Federal Fellow both on Capitol Hill and at OSTP. “Surrounded by political science and pre-law majors, an ASME Fellow in a political office can easily become the wizard of the team, available to deal with a host of science and engineering needs,” Quinlan said. “Members of Congress see an ASME Federal Fellow as a contributor of precious real-world problem-solving approaches and knowledge.”

Quinlan is now associate director of the Renewable Energy Research Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts.

ASME Federal Fellows have provided policy makers with key information on a variety of issues in the past 35 years. Among them:

• Critical security issues, including the protection of critical infrastructure and assessment of potential threat by terrorists; airport security radiation detection technology and biometric identification technology; the prevention of shipment of weapons of mass destruction into the U.S. via container ships; and, consequence analysis for toxic inhalation hazard chemical releases.

• National competitiveness issues, such as the development of the 21st Century Patent System Improvement Act, the Digital Era Copyright Enhancement Act, the American Inventors Protection Act, as well as the National Nanotechnology Initiative and the America COMPETES Act.

• 21st-century workforce preparedness by enhancing science, technology, engineering, and math education in grades K-12 and the development of a STEM teacher development program in partnership with the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California has observed that information flows both ways. “It has become increasingly important for Congress to include technical expertise involving public policy issues dealing with engineering and science,” she said. “Your program permits engineers to learn about the governing process while enabling Congressional offices to better understand engineering and technical information.”

Jim Moxley, senior vice president of Northern Virginia Electric Corp., is a case in point.

“Upon my return to industry at the end of my year at OSTP, working with energy and natural resources policies, as well as with the President’s Commission on Industrial Competitiveness, I viewed the relationship between industry and government in a different and far more complex way,” Moxley said. “The experience produced an appreciation for the imperfect nature of law-making and the value of input from engineers and scientists in that process.”

VITAL CHALLENGES

Following a 25-year career with ExxonMobil, Philip Grossweiler has just completed a year as an ASME Federal Fellow. According to Grossweiler, “It was interesting over the course of my Fellow year to see how the nexus of energy, climate change, national security, energy prices, and the national economy evolved into one of the leading political issues leading up to the 2008 elections.” Grossweiler expects that the key challenges for future ASME Federal Fellows will include the development of energy policies and an integrated U.S. and international policy on climate change.

The office of Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon also hosted an ASME Federal Fellow. “His knowledge of energy technologies and systems enabled him to provide sound science and technology guidance on numerous energy and natural resource policy issues,” Smith said. “ASME Federal Fellows are valuable to ensuring that Congressional actions are informed by sound scientific information.”

One former ASME Federal Fellow, Connie Lausten, is vice president for regulatory and legislative affairs for New Generation Biofuels. Her ASME Federal Fellows experience launched her career in energy policy development on issues ranging from electricity transmission to renewable energy.

Dennis Achgill, a senior mechanical engineer in energy and small engine business at Rolls-Royce Corp., finds that the experience has stayed with him. “I feel it is extremely important for engineers to be aware of and involved in government deliberations,” Achgill said. “I reap the benefits of my ASME Federal Fellows experience every day, as I encounter new and challenging technical and business issues within the gas turbine industry on our quest for a greater range of energy options.”

George A. Borlase, a staff member in the National Security Technology Department at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, was an ASME Federal Fellow at OSTP. “Every day was something new and required me to reach into the proverbial tool bag to look at a problem a different way,” Borlase said. “Critical thinking skills and engineering approaches were invaluable in tackling every assignment. In addition, I was developing new skills and learning about the prioritization and decision-making processes at the highest levels of government.”

Johné M. Parker, a 2006 ASME Federal Fellow on Capitol Hill and an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Kentucky, finds that the knowledge she gained of science and technology policy has served her well. “I’m able to explore multidisciplinary research opportunities and teach classes from a much broader perspective than I could have ever imagined prior to being an ASME Federal Fellow,” she said.

ASME Federal Fellows can bring the same pragmatic, problem-solving approach to discussions of policy that they are trained to apply in the physical world. Their experience and understanding of the subject matter can often counter partisan rhetoric or special-interest bias on scientific and technical issues, and that can form a firmer foundation for society. In short, they are engineering the greater good.

To Support or Participate

As technology advances at an increasingly rapid pace, the need to engineer the greater good through effective public policy is all the more crucial—and challenging. Public policy makers recognize this need and are routinely requesting the assistance of ASME Federal Fellows at a level exceeding the program’s current capacity and available resources.

In order to continue its leadership role in applying a problem-solving approach to public policy development, the ASME Federal Fellows program requires a means of sustaining itself into the future. Next month, the ASME Foundation, a long-time supporter of the ASME Federal Fellows program, will officially announce its Engineering the Greater Good campaign to assure the sustainability of the ASME Federal Fellows program.

Additional information about the ASME Federal Fellows program is available at www.asme.org/NewsPublicPolicy/GovRelations/
Programs/Federal_Government.cfm. For information on how to contribute to the Engineering the Greater Good campaign, contact Judith Kearney at kearneyj@asme.org.

Mary James Legatski works in the ASME Government Relations office in Washington, D.C.