Welcome back to our series – This is What a Lobbyist Looks Like – where I give you a peak behind the curtain at the work our Lobby Team is doing to prepare for the upcoming Legisslative Session. In this week’s episode, I am joined by Texas Impact’s Climate Action Fellow Rev. Dr. Becca Edwards.
Kat:
Hey y’all. Kat Karbach here, Membership Manager. I am here for our next interview in our series “This is What a Lobbyist Looks Like” with my coworker Becca Edwards, who is our Climate Action Fellow here at Texas Impact. Hi Becca.
Becca:
Hi, Kat.
Kat:
Hi. I am so excited to do your interview because you have such a different perspective and background than our other lobby team members. So I was hoping you could tell our people, our members, a little bit about you, maybe your education, your background. If you want to tell us anything personal, we’d love to hear from you.
Becca:
Great. Sure. Yes. Well, I have a PhD in, it’s a multidisciplinary degree between atmospheric science and engineering, and as part of my dissertation work, I actually was a hurricane chaser, and after that I went to teach at a liberal arts college for 10 years in Georgetown. So there I taught engineering, but also climate science classes. As part of that work, I was part of a teaching cohort where we learned about climate change from angles, from everything from biology to sociology, to government, to even theater has a perspective on climate change. That was a really transformative experience for me because I had previously only considered it from the atmospheric science perspective. Through that experience, I started to see climate more as a justice issue, which I think is part of what led me to seminary. After 10 years at Southwestern, then I went to Austin Seminary where I received an MDiv, Master’s in Divinity, in 2023, and it was during my time there that I took environmental ethics and went more deeply into the idea of climate as a justice issue. And it’s also where I met our executive director, Bee Moorhead. She has a class called Faith in Public Policy. That was a really important part of my seminary experience, and it led me to the job that I have today.
Kat:
Wow. Wow, wow, wow. And it’s funny because we work together day in, day out, but you just forget how cool your coworkers are. Hurricane chaser! That’s so cool. I feel like we could do a whole interview about that, and I wish we could, but we have other things to talk about. So you’re wearing your collar, and so you’re not a pastor, you are a…
Becca:
Well, I’m a pastor in the United Methodist Church, there are two different types of ordination. One is deacon and one is elder, and elders are called to order the life of the church, and deacons are called to connect the church with the world. And so I am a deacon, which is also a pastor. I’m not ordained yet. I’m commissioned, which is the first step. And then you’re in residency for two years. So I’m commissioned and I’m in residency now, and I will be until hopefully June, 2026. We will see. But like I said, my journey, my professional journey took me through seminary. I originally thought I would end up in a church, but like I said, that justice part really spoke to me. And so now I’m doing this policy work that I’m doing today, and I think that my theological training has been a really important motivator for the kind of work that I do. I think that our faith traditions give us really good models and language around these big problems and these big justice issues. I think the story of the gospel is my own tradition, which is Protestant Christianity and the stories of the gospel is one of how God loves us and wants us to love each other, and I think of climate justice and climate science as a way that we can better understand ways that we can love each other.
Kat:
That is a really helpful segue into how you’re preparing for the session as a new member on the lobby team, that idea of bringing climate justice, you’re very academic based background together to be a lobbyist at the Capitol. What, if anything, have you been doing to take all of those pieces together to prepare for this upcoming session?
Becca:
Sure. So this will be my first session as a lobbyist. I have a little bit of experience from volunteering with Texas Impact during my time at the seminary. That was super positive. And I think one of the things that we do well is to prepare people for the experience of meeting with legislative staff and to being in the capitol to testifying at public hearings and things like that. They really make it approachable and give you all the information that you need so you can feel prepared and confident when you go into that situation. And so this session, I think the biggest way I’m preparing is just reading as many bills as I can and really understanding what kind of policy, especially around energy and climate is out there, and making connections between the Texas policy and the things that we need to be doing here with the federal policy around air quality and the climate that has come out over the last few years. And also connecting it with the international effort to curb climate change. So I’ve been just spending a lot of time learning as much as I can and just thinking about how those other spaces for policy inform what we need to be doing at a state level.
Kat:
That’s a lot of moving parts to be tracking, and I love that you are here to do that because then you’re able to give our people exactly what they need to take action, which is what each of our lobbyists do. You’ve got Bobby working on anti-gun violence, Gracie and the schools, and that’s a lot of info, and that’s what we want you as our members to know why we’re doing these series is for you to get to know all of the work that our team is doing. I mean, you’ve got the state, the federal international’s, just so much to track as well as bringing in that faith piece. That’s a lot o f work. Hats off to you. You’re doing some good work.
Becca:
Thank you. I mean, it is a really big space and a really big job, and I say there should be four of me, but I think for the issue of climate and energy, it’s an issue that uniquely requires cooperation from all levels of government. So it is helpful to have one person sort of overseeing all those different levels.
Kat:
Yeah. Well, that is a lot of really good information for our people to hear about the work we’re doing around climate. Is there anything you want to tell our members about how they can prepare for this session? You talked about having a positive experience doing, were you doing a visit? Were you going for a purpose to go to the Capitol? Can you maybe share a little bit about that?
Becca:
Sure. So the first time that I did work at the Capitol with Texas Impact was when we were doing legislative visits around an anti-trans healthcare bill that we opposed, and I was paired up with another seminary student and we had a stack of 30 folders to drop off at different offices with some materials. It seemed really intimidating, but once you get into it and you start meeting the staff, it’s really fun to get to know people and realize they’re just regular people and everyone is friendly and professional. So like I said, it is really approachable, and one office even invited us in to eat their Olive Garden meal with them in the back conference room, and we watched the hearing that we were there to talk about with the staff, and we all ate Olive Garden and this really delicious chocolate cake. So I would just say when it comes to legislative visits, just stay positive and flexible and informed and be ready for unexpected things to happen that can be really, really good.
Kat:
Positive, flexible, informed. I think that that is a really great takeaway for our members when it comes to thinking about making these visits because we want them to be going to the Capitol and we’re going to call on them to do just that. Positive, flexible, informed.
Becca:
Absolutely.
Kat:
I love it. I love it so much. Well, thank you so much for chatting with me today.
Becca:
Well, thank you for having me
Kat:
Oh, of course. This is one of the series in our annual fall membership drive. I have to make a plug. If you are not already a member, we would love for you to join today, texasimpact.org. You can click the “Join” link, learn more about team members like Becca. You can watch previous interviews with Bobby Gracie and Kyle. Thanks so much for joining us today. That’s all.