Elevating the Work of Environmental Scientists

As a Senior Advisor in the Office of the Secretary of the Interior, and the newly appointed Environmental Justice Coordinator for the Department of the Interior, Ryan Hathaway ’04 walks political appointees and government agency officials through the environmental implications of a proposed policy or action. 

As much as he’d like to get in the weeds with them discussing science, he knows that to get through to them, he must draw on skills he might not have a degree in but has surely mastered – emotional intelligence and empathy. 

“So much of it is about bringing people together who are on disparate ends of a conversation and negotiating a conflict resolution,” Hathaway said. “If you want to actually get some success, you have to work with the people and not just the science.”

Hathaway, who studied wildlife conservation at University of Delaware and natural resources management at Virginia Tech, began his career lobbying and working for Safari Club International. He was soon drawn to the federal government because of the opportunity it presented to write and implement environmental policies. 

“I think people often want to be in an easy-to-understand world, and human psychology lends itself to wanting to see things [as] absolutes. This is especially obvious when writing policy and laws,” Hathaway said. “However, the world we live in isn't black and white. It's mostly gray or rainbow or just complicated and intertwined. The challenge then is writing policies that avoid absolutes and rigidity, [and instead] policies that can affect a positive outcome that moves us towards the world we want to be living in. 

“My interest peaked on how the policy was being made, but more importantly to me, how we implement policy. I liked the challenge that this presented, and so I made the jump to the Fish and Wildlife Service, and then the Bureau of Land Management, and now the Department of the Interior. The missions might change, but the challenge of writing and implementing environmental policies that are often viewed and challenged by a variety of stakeholders remains consistent through my career.” 

Hathaway began his career implementing policies written before his time in government, such as the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970, which legislatively requires the government to incorporate science into its decision making. 

“It doesn’t require you to make a good decision — it requires you to make an informed decision and prove that your decision-making process was informed by the best available science and public participation,” Hathaway said. 

However, as he has assumed more management roles in recent years, Hathaway has been drawn to elevating the excellence of his civil servant colleagues. 

“Consistently, I am amazed by the talent and devotion of public servants working to make the world a better place. So, my motivation now has grown to include finding ways to better capture and leverage the federal workforce,” Hathaway said. “I think our country has a pool of talented, focused, and motivated environmental scientists and stewards that aren't utilized, are undervalued, and, more importantly, they feel undervalued.” 

As an intermediary between scientists and government officials and political appointees, Hathaway strives to bring empathy to his day-to-day work and leadership style. He acknowledges that, while he can sit down with a government official and explain a policy to them, he must also be able to keep his cool when they misinterpret his explanation or even make an off-the-cuff remark during a press conference.