Getting Scientists in Office

Parrish Bergquist

Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Parrish Bergquist is an Assistant Professor at he University of Pennsylvania’s Political Science Department. She studies the political determinants of environmental policy—in the US and abroad—with a particular focus on public will and political behavior. The three major strands of her research focus on explaining the development of attitudes and policy views about climate change and the environment, examining how public environmental concern is activated in the political system, and explaining the drivers and consequences of state-level climate policies in the polarized US political context. Her research has been published in scholarly outlets including the Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Nature Climate Change, Nature Energy, and Environmental Research Letters. Dr. Bergquist teach classes in environmental politics, public policy, and statistical methods. In her teaching she aims to help students apply theories and insights from political science, sociology, and economics to a wide range of public policy topics. She received her PhD from MIT in political science and urban studies & planning in 2019. 

Michael Mann

Director of Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media;
Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Michael Mann is Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication. His research focuses on climate science and climate change. He was selected by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002, was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geophysical Union in 2012. He made Bloomberg News‘ list of fifty most influential people in 2013.  He has received the Friend of the Planet Award from the National Center for Science Education, the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication from Climate, the Award for Public Engagement with Science from the AAAS, the Climate Communication Prize from the American Geophysical Union and the Leo Szilard Award of the American Physical Society. He received the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement 2019 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2020. He is a Fellow of the AGU, AMS, GSA, AAAS and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is co-founder of RealClimate.org, author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications, numerous op-eds and commentaries, and five books including Dire Predictions, The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars, The Madhouse Effect, The Tantrum that Saved the World, The New Climate War and Our Fragile Moment.

Monica Taylor

Chair of Delaware County Council and Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director at Temple University in the College of Public Health

Dr. Monica Taylor is a graduate of the University of Maine where she earned a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology, she received her master’s degree from East Stroudsburg University in clinical exercise physiology specializing in cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation. Taylor worked as a clinical exercise physiologist and a strength and conditioning coach at the United States Military Academy at West Point prior to earning her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Taylor is Currently the Chair of Delaware County Council, she was sworn into office for her first term on January 6th 2020. Dr. Taylor is the first African American elected to Delaware County Council. Beginning during her first few days in office, Dr. Taylor worked with the County team to implement monumental and historic changes in Delaware County.  She spearheaded the effort to create a County Health Department from the ground up with a mission to build healthy and thriving communities. Dr. Taylor is also an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director at Temple university in the College of Public Health. Dr. Taylor has an extensive history of working in academia as a professor and program director and supporting the community through her work. She has spearheaded outreach projects to educate high school students about potential careers in the allied health industry and her Early STEAM program working in local Philadelphia elementary schools to introduce young students to Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM).

Shaugnessy Naughton

President of 314 Action

As President of 314 Action, Shaughnessy Naughton is frequently called upon by media outlets and other interest groups to speak about the urgent need to elect more scientists and physicians at every level of government. She has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Scientific American, Science Magazine, and BBC America. Her passionate commitment to increasing the number of professionals with scientific training in Congress is deeply personal. In 2014, Shaughnessy, an entrepreneur with a degree in chemistry ran for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 8th District. It was a leap of faith, strengthened by a commitment to taking her scientific training and experience to Washington, D.C. Although unsuccessful in her bid for office, the experience and what she learned prompted Shaughnessy to form 314 Action in June 2016 to encourage and unite the scientific community around the political process and advance a pro-science agenda. 314 Action recruits, trains, and elects STEM professionals. Under her leadership, scores of STEM professionals have been elected to public office. 314 Action Education Fund’s mission is to educate the current and next generation of scientists and STEM-grounded citizens to be civically engaged in their communities.