Engaging with the Local Community as a Scientist

By Sheeva Azma

I virtually attended the 2024 AAAS Conference for free as a journalist due to my membership in the National Association of Science Writers. You can read all of my 2024 AAAS annual meeting recap blogs; this one is about a session about engaging your local community as a scientist. A dedicated AAAS fan, I have written about various AAAS seminars and meetings I’ve attended here.

This session, called “Local Science Engagement: Building Community Engagement Skills,” sought to empower scientists to productively build trust with the communities in which they live to be able to incorporate science into “local problem-solving,” according to the provided synopsis of the session.

Dan Barry of the AAAS Local Science Engagement Network (LSEN), who co-organized the session with Mary Catherine Longshore, also of AAAS, kicked off the seminar. He talked about AAAS’s goals to work at federal, state, county, and municipal levels. AAAS is known for federal policy advocacy, but LSEN broadens AAAS’s reach to community audiences and community leaders, so that we’re bringing science into all manner of decision-making, in all levels of community life,” says Barry.

LSEN empowers its liaisons, scientists and engineers, to “facilitate meaningful interactions between scientists, engineers and local leaders.” LSEN supports the liaisons to develop “relationships with civic, community, business, and policy leaders, as well as other stakeholders, providing scientific information and insights.” Lastly, LSEN builds infrastructure for understanding that scientific evidence is an essential tool in public decision-making.

After Barry kicked off the session, Mary Catherine Longshore chatted with Faith Bowman and Natasha DeLeon-Rodriguez, first asking them what made them want to volunteer as a LSEN liaison. 

Bowman, a PhD candidate in biochemistry at the University of Utah, joined LSEN to blend her scientist and non-scientist identities. Outside of science, she worked on leadership and community-building activities, which she wanted to leverage in LSEN to make “a broader impact” in science. She says “you’re not taught to identify soft skills” as a scientist that are transferable to the LSEN sphere.

Natasha says it was a “no-brainer” to apply to LSEN to expand the network to connect with people in Puerto Rico, and bring science communication and civic engagement to the masses. To Natasha, civic engagement is “every connection with someone that wants to deal with a problem in your community,” whether it’s getting together to preserve part of the environmental habitat, broaden solar power, or help “achieve or save something.” Civic engagement is important, Natasha says, because she noticed that, as a scientist, colonial or “helicopter” science is a huge issue. “We go there, we tell them what the problem is, we go, we grab the information, we go publish…and the community never hears back from us.” She wants to help scientists learn from communities and start asking questions, not the other way around. She says we need to be humble and learn from non-scientists who have a lot to contribute.

Bowman says it’s “memorable” for her fellow grad students to learn together through participation in LSAN. Seeing her own growth in engagement with policymakers, or making connections in public spaces like libraries, is also memorable for her. She reached out to the library and asked to partner with them, to engage more with the community outside of the University of Utah. “All of these little moments when I get to learn and meet new people are super memorable, because it’s something I haven’t had to practice being at the [lab] bench.”

Identity and authenticity are important in this work to build trust and make connections, Longshore says. Bowman has partnered with Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) to seek out opportunities to partner with Indigenous scientists to “let that seep into everything that I do.” Helping people learn via new perspectives and new ways of thinking to one’s work are great assets derived from one’s uniqueness, Bowman says.

Bowman has been working to build relationships not only in the community but also with policymakers. She has given workshops in the fields of health policy and environment, creating seminars for people, and has also worked on creating a science memo given to policymakers to inform them of what’s at stake on environmental issues. She is working on recruiting community members to attend her monthly workshops and join her LSEN site in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“What should someone know about doing this work?” asks Longshore.

DeLeon-Rodriguez says that we don’t always have to show our expertise “card.” She is a woman, Afro-Latina, daughter who “works in my community” and cares “about many things.” You can’t go everywhere and say you are Dr. so-and-so. Maybe you will just be called “Natasha” or even have a nickname. “You have to connect with people at the human level because we are all human and sometimes we forget that.”

Persistence also helps, says Bowman. “Even if something wasn’t successful, I can learn from that, but I am going to keep trying.”

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