TEA Steering Committee: Zachary Crowley

Zachary Crowley, LA03

The Tufts Environmental alum talks to TIE about his vision for TEA!

Zachary completed a degree in history through Tufts’ School of Arts and Sciences. He also holds a mid-career masters degree from there Harvard Kennedy School in public administration. Zachary is a newer member of the TEA Steering committee. At TIE, we’re excited to get to know Zach and facilitate connections with current students. Read Zach’s responses to an interview with between him and TIE:

1. How are you using what you learned at Tufts and particularly at TIE in your current work?

Students of history are issue generalists trained to take a step back from interesting problems to try and see larger forces at work, and we are also story tellers who pull threads of information from different disciplines and apply them to try to understand why things happened the way they did.
My professional work has revolved around state politics and the Massachusetts State House, and I have relied on my history training to think broadly about narrow policy problems, and to tell persuasive stories that, hopefully, help drive policy change.

2. What drew you to the steering committee of the TEA chapter?

Through my work in state government, I became an analyst of state-level energy and environmental policy. This led to work on important state laws (the Global Warming Solutions Act, the Ocean Act, the Buzzards Bay Protection Act, among many others) as well as employment for several years with the state environmental regulator. That work plugged me into interesting environmental networks and policy discussions, and I began attending TEA events. Also, I’m fairly sure that at the time I needed a job and I figured just maybe I’d meet someone who would give me one.

3. What do you bring to the chapter?

Through my work in state government I am aware of interesting resources, both natural and human, that can help lead to an interesting event or speaker. For students and young alumni, I’m available to talk about what it is like to work for the state, or in various policy fields and organizations that we interact with.

4. What are the next steps for the steering committee?

We’re going to keep delivering our key annual events – a good speaker, a good hike, a career day, a volunteer day – and think about how to engage our alumni, young and old, in the environmental conversation.

5. If you ended up moving away from the Boston area, how would you want to stay connected with Tufts?

Probably won’t happen – but through Tufts graduates in the area I’ve moved to, and through newsletters, e-mails, and other updates from the Tufts world.

6.Why would an alumnus want to be involved in the TEA chapter?

Good opportunity for networking and learning about new developments in the environment.

7.What do you think the TEA mascot should be?

Mark dressed up as a green elephant, of course.

Meet the rest of the TEA Steering Committee here!