“It will be an honor to be on this board,” Dearing said. “Potentially, then I have a little bit of input and can offer some suggestions based on the kind of social science research that I do.”

Currently, Dearing studies how people respond to new things, with an increasing focus on environmental issues, especially carbon emission mitigation.

“I've always been interested and active in environmental issues, but in recent years, I have made a concerted effort to move more of my research proposals and the kinds of groups that I work with into environmental protection areas,” he said. “Of course, with greater and greater attention due to natural disasters that are climate related, nothing seems more important to me.”

While Dearing said he does not yet fully understand the role he will play on the board, he believes his expertise will be of value because of his focus on new ideas. As policymakers discover new ways to mitigate the effects of environmental disasters, some will react with uncertainty.

“A whole bunch of uncertainty typically comes into play when people evaluate consequential kinds of new things, things that may really affect how they do their work, or how they live their life,” Dearing said. “I understand some of the typical barriers to people changing their minds, people being open to new ideas, as well as at the organization level — like engineering firms, state governments, county governments — what kinds of factors tend to affect their decisions, to try new ways to clean up toxic spills or to protect the environment that we have?”