Interviews & Media

 I sometimes provide interviews to media on my publications. For interview requests, please get in touch with me through my contact information.

2025

2024

Article by NCSU News and NACC (Nonprofit Academic Centers Council) on my research paper, “Individual and interlinked SDGs: higher education institutions and metro area sustainability performance,” published in the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education in 2024.

2023

SciPolPack Creates a Local Community in Science Policy

7/24/2023

Meredith Schmehl

The Science Policy Pack (SciPolPack) at North Carolina State University connects community members seeking educational opportunities in science policy and communication. Team members Megan Franklin (External Affairs Coordinator), Morgan Westbrook (Co-President), and Ha Vien (Co-President) share the group’s recent successes and upcoming plans.

What is your chapter’s mission?

SciPolPack unites NC State undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, faculty, and alumni interested in the intersection between science and policy. The group aims to provide learning and professional development opportunities for group members to improve key skills and competencies in the fields of science policy and communication.

What are some of your chapter’s current projects or recent successes?

First, a long term project SciPolPack has been working on focuses on PFAS regulation. PFAS are “forever chemicals” that have been contaminating drinking water across North Carolina. Our goal is to aid in connecting the community of North Carolina PFAS stakeholders and spread the word about this issue in order to improve regulatory standards. The active portion of this project is culminating into our final deliverable, a report on PFAS and its stakeholders in North Carolina. We are excited to be sharing that report with the public very soon.

Second, recently our members have joined the Union of Concerned Scientists to write comments on the EPA's ethylene oxide sterilizer rule.

Finally, in the past year we have hosted various seminars to help our members explore various career paths of Science Policy. Our speakers included NC House and Senate representatives, the Union of Concerned Scientists, Policy Analysts from the U.S. State Department, Diplomats working with foreign governments, and even local NC State University Faculty, involved in Policy Implementation and Research.

How has the NSPN community helped your chapter?

NSPN has been a great resource for networking and providing learning opportunities that our group can take advantage of. We have really enjoyed attending the NSPN symposiums to learn about new aspects of science policy and to network with other science-minded people who share our interest in policy.

Last year our chapter was able to participate in the Science Diplomacy Committee’s book club reading of Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World by Fareed Zakaria thanks to a microgrant from NSPN.

We have also had two members selected as SciDip Fellows within the last year, one working with the quantum computing landscape, the other working with global health security.

Has your chapter encountered any recent challenges, and if so, how have you approached those challenges?

It has been particularly challenging to recruit and maintain membership. Our group is now about 4 years old, a stage where it is important for us to find new, earlier graduate/undergrad career members who are interested in holding leadership positions and sustaining the group into the future. Since we all must prioritize being students, it is difficult to commit a lot of time to SciPolPack projects. To address this, we are looking to utilize projects and workshops that other organizations are leading, and which we can plug into until we grow our base membership back up. We hope this will help take some of the strain of planning off of our leadership team. Recently, we have also amended our constitution to now allow undergraduate students to hold leadership positions. Shout out to our undergraduate Secretary, Jake Garner, for bringing lots of energy and ideas to the group! We hope that providing more opportunities for undergraduate involvement will bring more energy, longevity, and diverse ideas.

If you had to describe your chapter in one word, what would it be?

Enthusiastic

What are you most excited about in the next few months?

With the new school year coming up, we are excited to meet incoming students. SciPolPack will be at NC State Graduate Student Orientation and the Student Involvement Fair spreading the word about our group and meeting other students with similar interests. We have also found a new faculty advisor, Dr. Serena Kim, who is an incoming professor in the Department of Public Administration at NC State. We are looking forward to growing our SciPol community at NC State.