James Dearing, Ph.D., professor and chairperson of the Department of Communication at MSU's College of Communication Arts and Sciences, has accepted an invitation to serve on an advisory council for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Dearing will serve on the EPA’s National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology, which advises the agency administrator about a range of issues and reports to the EPA on policy challenges.
“This will be a way to bring a social science perspective to EPA deliberations,” said Dearing. “Applications of diffusion of innovation theory and scale-up strategies can help the EPA to accelerate the adoption of community-level adaptation and mitigation policies and practices in response to climate change.”
Established in 1988, the National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology is charged with providing expert advice to the EPA administrator on a broad range of issues. These include environmental policy, technology and management issues. The council helps the EPA to gain diverse perspectives from a range of interest groups, including the public, private and nonprofit sectors. Council members serve as representatives from business and industry, academia and nongovernmental organizations, as well as state, tribal and local governments.
The council provides the EPA with an efficient and cost-effective forum that can quickly respond to evolving policy challenges. The council meets several times annually.
Dearing has led three research grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has served in advisory roles for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and was Scientific Advisor for the National Institutes of Health Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation. From 2005-2010, he was a member of the Framework Committee of the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine Review for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
By Melissa Priebe