by
Marsha Walton
Rachel Owen earned her Ph.D. in soil science, studying
the impact of a changing climate on wetland ecosystems and landowner perceptions of climate threats. But some of her other skills, as a diplomat and a “science translator,” are just as crucial in helping Missouri lawmakers navigate complicated scientific issues.
Owen is the executive director of MOST, The Missouri Science and Technology Policy Initiative. In 2016, she started the group with two other graduate students to explore what science advising at the state level might look like.
The aim was to make non-partisan experts available to state legislators; to answer questions about the complex science topics crossing their desks.