You can lean on us as you lean into local civic engagement.

You can always have an out-sized impact by engaging where you live. This is a great time to get more involved in your community, and Engineers & Scientists Acting Locally (ESAL), with your support, can be there each step of your engagement journey.

Donate today to invest in this growing network of people with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) acting locally.

Who we are

ESAL is an organization composed almost entirely by 40+ dedicated volunteers. The social media posts, articles, workshops, conference sessions, virtual events, local engagement events, fundraising, and operations of our organization are led and run by teams of volunteers. Our team members have a range of STEM backgrounds and diverse skills that they choose to share to help realize ESAL's mission. We have a managing director to support volunteers and ensure the organization has consistent internal direction to sustain this growing organization.

Our goals

This year, we launched our first organizational Strategic Plan, 2024-2027 to set network engagement, organizational development, and outreach goals and strategies. We are working to:

Increase civic engagement by people with backgrounds in STEM, including with city, county, and state government and with community-oriented non-profit and volunteer organizations.
Create avenues for individuals with backgrounds in STEM to not only identify like-minded peers and local officials, but also pinpoint issues of importance and employ effective strategies for engaging with civic matters that significantly impact their local communities.
Develop communications and marketing strategies that energize new people and organizations to contribute to local civic engagement in effective ways.

Our history

The creation of ESAL was motivated by the experience of founder Arti Garg. After spending several years in Washington, D.C., first as a legislative adviser in Congress and then as an analyst in the White House, life brought her to California where she began working as a technologist. Missing her connection to government, she successfully applied for an appointment to a standing task force in her city, Hayward, California.

Arti found that her professional and community work intersected in a way that allowed her to impact policy issues that mattered to her and make a difference at the local level. To help other STEM professionals realize these local opportunities exist, she worked with other engineers and scientists who have worked in public policy to create Engineers and Scientists Acting Locally (ESAL).

Check out our very first article to learn more.

2024 End-of-Year Giving Campaign

By Engineers and Scientists Acting Locally

2024 End-of-Year Giving Campaign

Empowering Engineers & Scientists to Drive Local Impact

Team Members