Science to Policy

Susan Hackwood, PhD, is Professor of the Graduate Division and Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professor at the University of California Riverside. She is also Dean Emeritus of the Bourns College of Engineering. Until July 2018 she was the Executive Director of the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST). CCST is a not-for-profit corporation comprised of 200 plus science and technology leaders of the highest distinction. Sponsored by the key academic and federal research institutions in California, CCST advises the state on all aspects of science and technology including energy, information technologies, biotechnology, nanotechnology, stem cell research, healthcare technologies, climate change, disaster prevention technologies, intellectual property, technical workforce development, and education. Dr. Hackwood has worked extensively with industry, academia and government partnerships to identify policy issues of societal importance.

Doug Brown most recently served as the Program Advisor for CCST's Science & Technology Policy Fellowship which places PhD scientists and engineers in the California Legislature. Brown has formerly served as Chief-of-Staff to the 2008 Governor's Conference on Small Business and Entrepreneurship and as Principal Consultant with the California State Senate. Mr. Brown is an economic development specialist who was also the Assistant Director for Business Relations at the Employment Development Department. He spent three years with the California Technology, Trade & Commerce Agency where he designed the state's Small Business Development Center program. His federal experience includes positions with the US Senate, the Small Business Administration, and the White House Conference on Small Business. Mr. Brown, a former Peace Corps volunteer and a Vietnam veteran, has a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Kansas and a Master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the George Washington University.

Thomas Dugger received his B.S. in Engineering from Olin College of Engineering and his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from UC Riverside, where he also completed the Science to Policy (S2P) certificate program and served on the S2P student cabinet. His dissertation topic was sustainable plastics and his S2P focus was graduate education. He worked as a grant writer for S2P and is now a Research Strategy Officer at UC Office of the President in VP Theresa Maldonado’s Research & Innovation department. His main projects are supporting California’s burgeoning renewable hydrogen economy and state-funded climate action grants. Outside of work, he enjoys strategy games, cooking, biking, and cuddling his teenage rescue great dane, Connor.

Natalie Seitzman is a Legislative Affairs Manager for the Southern California Public Power Authority, a joint powers agency comprised of twelve publicly owned electric utilities. Prior to her work in public power, she completed a Science Policy Fellowship through the California Council on Science and Technology, during which she worked as a consultant in the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee.

Dr. Seitzman received a Ph.D. in materials science in 2020 from the Colorado School of Mines. She studied failure mechanisms in next-generation lithium batteries using multiple types of microscopy. She received a BS in chemistry from Trinity University in 2016.

Benjamin Stewart, PhD, is the Deputy Director of S2P’s CORE Incubator and the Director of Special Initiatives in the Bourns College of Engineering (BCOE). Previously at UCR, he worked as a Proposal Writer and Research Development Strategist (in BCOE) and as an Assistant Project Scientist (in the Department of Physics and Astronomy’s QMO lab). Prior to UCR, he held multiple roles at New York University (NYU), including Director of Faculty Development and Senior Lecturer, both in the Expository Writing Program. Benjamin’s graduate degrees are from NYU: a Ph.D. in Performance Studies and an MPS in Interactive Telecommunications. His bachelor’s degree, from Hampshire college, is in theater.

Jacob O’Connor, PhD, works as a Legislative Coordinator for the Washington State Department of Health, Health Systems Quality Assurance (HSQA) division. Prior to this position, they were an Assistant Consultant for the California Senate Transportation Committee, helping inform and advise Senators on topics including rules of the road, licensing and registration, highway design, and vehicle emissions standards. Prior to this position Jacob was a CCST Science Fellow where they worked in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. They received their PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Washington in 2021 completing a research dissertation on computational peptide design. After graduating they became a CCST Science Fellow. They have developed and led communication and policy training courses for scientists as the manager of ENGAGE at the University of Washington and as a leader of the training of the 2023 cohort of CCST Science Fellows.