In This Story
In September 2015, a Congressional hearing was held in the stately Rayburn Building on Capitol Hill to consider the fate of the National Ecological Observatory Network—NEON—and ambitious and first-ever attempt to gather and analyze climate, land change, and invasive species impacts on natural resources and biodiversity. For 30 years, scientists would have real-time, accurate data gathered by 62 high-tech monitoring sites across the United States, allowing them to immediately report and respond to possible crises as they arose.
While the National Science Foundation (NSF) program was green-lighted and funded for its six-year construction cycle to the tune of $433.72 million, there was a problem. By 2015, NEON was already 18 months behind schedule and $80 million over budget. And it had already spent $60 million in contingency costs.
The hearing in the Rayburn Building would decide NEON’s fate. This was a BIG problem for an important project.
At the time, James L. Olds was the head of the NSF’s Directorate for Biological Sciences and essentially in charge of the continent-scale program. He is now a University Professor of neuroscience and public policy at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government.
The story of how Olds managed to save NEON is one of the case studies in his course, POGO 710 Managing Large Government Crises, a one-of-a-kind graduate-level course that prepares students to intervene, lead, and, with hope, solve major developments and disasters facing the public. Also, how to rescue programs in Congressional jeopardy, as Olds did.
Other case histories in the class include the Boeing Company’s continuing tribulations, the response to the COVID pandemic, the disastrous Kabul Airport evacuation, and the crises created by the drought-stricken Colorado River.
When confronted with a large-scale crisis, one’s first impulse may be the most human: panic.
“Not panicking is the easy part,” Olds said. “They have to learn to act decisively and quickly. So it’s really the ability to act as a field general as opposed to an analyst.”
The course is designed to help students leapfrog places in their fields by providing advanced instruction beyond what they may experience elsewhere.
“So much of what’s taught is geared toward making students successful in the early careers,” Olds said. “Here I am trying to aim for value at the peak of their Schar alumni careers: as a principal. If you are successful once as a principal, then there are positions which will come your way as your career continues.”
It can be a considerable leap: “For NSF heads of directorates,” he said, “those next jobs are often university presidencies.”