Member since December 2025
Dr. Deborah D. Stine, former White House and Congressional staffer, is a nationally recognized science and technology keynote speaker, policy expert, educator, author, and founder of the Science & Technology Policy Academy. In addition, she is a senior fellow at InnovateUS, where she develops and delivers live training programs for public-sector professionals. Through keynote talks that combine big-picture insight with practical frameworks, she helps audiences understand how scientific and technical expertise, personal stories, and community realities can shape policymaker and public decisions in the age of AI.
One thing that surprises audiences is her concept of “The Data We Dismiss”: the idea that anecdotes, understood through the lens of skills, stories, and spaces, can be as essential as scientific and technical data in helping society respond to the complex challenges it faces.
Her keynote topics include From Insight to Societal Impact in the Age of AI, which helps civic and nonprofit audiences connect their stories and community knowledge to public decision-making; From Expertise to Impact in the Age of AI, which helps technical experts translate research and expertise into policy-relevant insight; and Making Smart Community Decisions About AI Data Centers, which helps local leaders evaluate economic, energy, water, workforce, and community tradeoffs before decisions are made.
She is the author of From Expertise to Impact: A Practical Guide to Informing and Influencing Science and Technology Policy, which provides scientists, engineers, and technical professionals with a practical roadmap for turning expertise into policy-relevant insights, credible communication, and meaningful engagement. The book reflects a central theme of her speaking: expertise matters most when it is connected to decisions, people, institutions, and action.
Dr. Stine brings experience across national, state, local, and community policy environments. She has served as Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in the Obama White House, Specialist in Science and Technology Policy at the Congressional Research Service, Study Director at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and Professor of the Practice in Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University.
She has spoken at Google, the United Nations, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Reimagine Appalachia, Sigma Xi, the Society of Women Engineers, Princeton University, Notre Dame, West Virginia University, the University of Virginia, and other colleges and universities throughout the country. She has also delivered talks for organizations working across science, technology, policy, workforce, economic development, and societal challenges.
Dr. Stine is an AAAS Fellow and recipient of the Carnegie Science Communication Award. She holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy Analysis and Public Administration, an MBA, and a B.S. in Mechanical and Environmental Engineering.
My passion is helping scientific and technical experts and communities with lived experience work together to inform policy, shape decisions, and create impact on the societal challenges and opportunities they care about.
To meet this goal, Dr. Stine speaks to audiences about her skills, stories, and spaces approach. Skills translate research, data, and analysis into evidence for action that answers policymakers’ questions. Stories connect policy choices to lived experience and show why action matters. Spaces ground that evidence in the communities decision-makers care about, serve, represent, or depend on—such as the districts they represent, the workplaces they lead, the institutions they govern, or the groups they serve.
In my twenties, I testified for the first time before the Texas Legislature on container-deposit legislation to reduce roadside litter—soda cans polluting the Texas countryside and roads. I walked into the committee room nervous but prepared. About ten legislators sat around the table. The room was crowded and tense—far more crowded than I expected for a hearing about soda cans.
Before I spoke, the committee chair welcomed the audience. He pointed out that many of them were workers from a Coca-Cola can manufacturing plant near Dallas. He emphasized that these jobs could be at risk if more cans were recycled. In that moment, I realized the hearing was not starting where I thought it was.
When it was my turn, I stuck to my plan. I talked about data from other states showing the policy worked. I cited polling from the LBJ School at the University of Texas showing Texans supported it. The legislators were polite. They asked questions. But it was clear their minds were already made up.
When the committee voted, the legislation did not move forward.
I wasn’t surprised—but I was defeated. Sitting there, I wondered what I had done wrong. Only afterward did it become clear: I had brought poll data showing Texans supported the policy, but I hadn’t brought Texans’ stories to back that data up. I assumed it was obvious that litter was a problem. I never told a story about the people living with that trash every day—property owners worried about their children and animals, people frustrated that their land had become a dumping ground.
The industry had a story about people. I had facts and figures.
That moment changed how I understand impact. In science, we’re trained to say anecdotes are not data. But in policymaking, anecdotes are data. They are often the data people trust first.
My commitment to evidence-based policymaking began in the field, not behind a desk. Early in my career, I worked as an air pollution engineer and served as a volunteer for the League of Women Voters in Texas, where I saw firsthand that scientific and technical evidence matters—but only if it can be used by the people making decisions.
Data could identify a problem, but communities, agencies, and policymakers still had to decide what to do, who would be affected, what tradeoffs were acceptable, and how to make a solution work in practice. That experience shaped the throughline of my career: helping people move from information to judgment, and from judgment to public action.
Since then, whether working in Congress, the White House, the National Academies, universities, or with scientists and public leaders, my focus has remained the same: translating evidence into decisions that make society work better.
Audience: Community leaders, local governments, economic development organizations, civic groups, and regional decision-makers.
Description: Communities across the country are facing important decisions about whether and how to use generative AI technologies and whether to host AI data centers. These decisions involve complex questions related to economic opportunity, energy demand, water use, workforce impacts, and community priorities. This keynote helps communities understand how to evaluate these decisions with greater clarity and confidence. Participants learn how communities can engage in conversations about AI development while considering long-term societal impacts.
Audience Outcomes: Participants will learn how to:
Ideal Audience: Scientists, engineers, health professionals, academic researchers, and technical experts working on societal challenges.
Description: Scientists, engineers, and health professionals generate valuable knowledge about complex societal challenges. Yet much of that insight never shapes policymakers' decisions.
This keynote focuses on helping experts translate scientific and technical expertise into insights policymakers and the public can use. The talk introduces the Skills–Stories–Spaces framework, explaining how expertise, stories, and information about community realities interact in policymaker decision environments. Participants then learn how to evaluate policy options using the 4E policy lens, which considers:
Effectiveness – whether a policy achieves its intended goals
Efficiency – whether resources are used wisely
Equity – who benefits and who bears the burden
Ease of Political Acceptability – whether the policy is politically feasible
Participants also learn how to combine analysis, communication, and engagement (ACE) to increase the real-world impact of their work.
Audience Outcomes: Participants will learn how to:
Ideal Audience: General audiences, civic organizations, nonprofit communities, and conferences focused on societal challenges.
Description: This keynote invites audiences to reflect on the societal problems they care about. Participants then discover how their own stories and knowledge of their community can shape policymakers’ and the public’s decisions on the societal issues they care about, alongside scientific and technical expertise.
Using the Skills–Stories–Spaces framework, the talk explains how expertise, personal stories, and information about community realities interact in policymaker decision environments. The result is a practical way for community members and organizations to better understand how decisions are made and how they can inform and influence them.
Audience Outcomes: Participants will learn how to:
From Expertise to Impact is an essential guide for scientists, engineers, and health professionals aspiring to make significant societal contributions by using their scientific and technical knowledge to inform and influence policymakers.
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Career coaching at the Science and Technology Policy Academy helps scientific and technical professionals make sense of a rapidly changing landscape and translate what they know and can do into formats that employers can recognize and act on.
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Dr. Stine offers virtual and in-person workshops tailored to meet your organization’s needs. Five core tracks are Career Transitions, Community Engagement, Policymaker Communication, AI Application, Policy Analysis, and Program Evaluation.
Learn MoreIn my twenties, I testified for the first time before the Texas Legislature on container-deposit legislation to reduce roadside litter—soda cans polluting the Texas countryside and roads. I walked into the committee room nervous but prepared. About ten legislators sat around the table. The room was crowded and tense—far more crowded than I expected for a hearing about soda cans.
Before I spoke, the committee chair welcomed the audience. He pointed out that many of them were workers from a Coca-Cola can manufacturing plant near Dallas. He emphasized that these jobs could be at risk if more cans were recycled. In that moment, I realized the hearing was not starting where I thought it was.
When it was my turn, I stuck to my plan. I talked about data from other states showing the policy worked. I cited polling from the LBJ School at the University of Texas showing Texans supported it. The legislators were polite. They asked questions. But it was clear their minds were already made up.
When the committee voted, the legislation did not move forward.
I wasn’t surprised—but I was defeated. Sitting there, I wondered what I had done wrong. Only afterward did it become clear: I had brought poll data showing Texans supported the policy, but I hadn’t brought Texans’ stories to back that data up. I assumed it was obvious that litter was a problem. I never told a story about the people living with that trash every day—property owners worried about their children and animals, people frustrated that their land had become a dumping ground.
The industry had a story about people. I had facts and figures.
That moment changed how I understand impact. In science, we’re trained to say anecdotes are not data. But in policymaking, anecdotes are data. They are often the data people trust first.
My commitment to evidence-based policymaking began in the field, not behind a desk. Early in my career, I worked as an air pollution engineer and served as a volunteer for the League of Women Voters in Texas, where I saw firsthand that scientific and technical evidence matters—but only if it can be used by the people making decisions.
Data could identify a problem, but communities, agencies, and policymakers still had to decide what to do, who would be affected, what tradeoffs were acceptable, and how to make a solution work in practice. That experience shaped the throughline of my career: helping people move from information to judgment, and from judgment to public action.
Since then, whether working in Congress, the White House, the National Academies, universities, or with scientists and public leaders, my focus has remained the same: translating evidence into decisions that make society work better.
Audience: Community leaders, local governments, economic development organizations, civic groups, and regional decision-makers.
Description: Communities across the country are facing important decisions about whether and how to use generative AI technologies and whether to host AI data centers. These decisions involve complex questions related to economic opportunity, energy demand, water use, workforce impacts, and community priorities. This keynote helps communities understand how to evaluate these decisions with greater clarity and confidence. Participants learn how communities can engage in conversations about AI development while considering long-term societal impacts.
Audience Outcomes: Participants will learn how to:
Ideal Audience: Scientists, engineers, health professionals, academic researchers, and technical experts working on societal challenges.
Description: Scientists, engineers, and health professionals generate valuable knowledge about complex societal challenges. Yet much of that insight never shapes policymakers' decisions.
This keynote focuses on helping experts translate scientific and technical expertise into insights policymakers and the public can use. The talk introduces the Skills–Stories–Spaces framework, explaining how expertise, stories, and information about community realities interact in policymaker decision environments. Participants then learn how to evaluate policy options using the 4E policy lens, which considers:
Effectiveness – whether a policy achieves its intended goals
Efficiency – whether resources are used wisely
Equity – who benefits and who bears the burden
Ease of Political Acceptability – whether the policy is politically feasible
Participants also learn how to combine analysis, communication, and engagement (ACE) to increase the real-world impact of their work.
Audience Outcomes: Participants will learn how to:
Ideal Audience: General audiences, civic organizations, nonprofit communities, and conferences focused on societal challenges.
Description: This keynote invites audiences to reflect on the societal problems they care about. Participants then discover how their own stories and knowledge of their community can shape policymakers’ and the public’s decisions on the societal issues they care about, alongside scientific and technical expertise.
Using the Skills–Stories–Spaces framework, the talk explains how expertise, personal stories, and information about community realities interact in policymaker decision environments. The result is a practical way for community members and organizations to better understand how decisions are made and how they can inform and influence them.
Audience Outcomes: Participants will learn how to: