Rachel K. Owen, PhD

Dr. Rachel K. Owen is a policy and social entrepreneur with proven success in making things happen. Throughout her career, she has not only seen the vision for how to solve problems facing graduate students, scientists, policymakers and more, but also taken initiative to implement solutions.

In 2016, Dr. Owen co-founded Missouri Science and Technology (MOST) Policy Initiative and served as the founding executive director from 2019 - 2021. During her time leading MOST, she was invited to give presentations across the country about how to implement nonpartisan science advising into state-level policy. She also led MOST through their transition to an independent nonprofit (501c3) organization and grew the organization from a single employee to a team of 12 full and part time staff.

In 2021, Rachel co-founded SciTech Forefront, a Medium publication aimed to bring science policy writers together to share resources and articles. She now serves as the Co-Editor of Forefront. Rachel is also the Development Director of Engineers and Scientists Acting Locally (ESAL).

Dr. Owen received her Ph.D. in the University of Missouri School of Natural Resources, researching the impact of a changing climate on wetland ecosystems and landowner perceptions of climate and agricultural threats in the Great Plains.

In 2021, Dr. Owen was appointed as an adjunct faculty member in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Missouri. In addition to coaching the Mizzou soil judging team, Rachel was the lead instructor for Introduction to Soil Science (SOIL 2100) in Spring 2021 and plans to continue teaching remotely and assisting with research when possible. Dr. Owen has published several soil science journal articles from her PhD research, MS research, and teaching experiences.

August 2023