Science
This week's episode features Russ Harrison, Director of Government Relations for IEEE-USA, the American component of the world’s largest technical professional society, IEEE, with nearly 170,000 individual members across the United States. IEEE-USA supports the career growth and public policy interests of its members, who are technical professionals. Our conversation covered a range of advocacy and policy issues, including: Common misperceptions about policymaking Russ hears from audiences during his frequent talks with IEEE-USA members, their questions, and how he responds to them Areas Russ believes technical professionals - in general - need to further develop to be successful as advocates for their policy priorities Which assets technical professionals have in interactions with policymakers and their staffs - including some that perhaps engineers, for example, don’t even realize they have How advocacy has been affected by COVID Central principles of Russ's own advocacy approach, and how his approach has developed over the years IEEE-USA’s priorities for shaping policy and how Russ sees policy and regulation developing in the future