Welcome back! Five minutes with Emily Rogers.
Former Fund canvass director Emily Rogers recently returned to the staff of The Public Interest Network as an advocate with U.S. PIRG working on toxics. Here’s more about her, in her own words:
Let’s start at the beginning. What are your roots?
I grew up in Northeast PA, spending a lot of time outdoors throughout the year but especially at summer camp in White Haven, PA. This time outside developed my love of nature and the environment.
Describe your first politicizing experience. Why did it have such an impact on you?
Seeing first-hand how people lack access to basic resources, especially water, in developing countries while conducting research in East Africa first sparked my desire to be involved in policy work. After graduating college, my work with the Fund showed me the power of people to enact change. These two experiences had the impact of politicizing me and impressing on me the importance of being an active participant in democracy and the issues I care about.
Who or what has most influenced your direction in life?
My parents have always encouraged me to pursue my passions. My mom is a nature-nut at heart and has imbued in me the love and appreciation for our environment. My dad is the most hard-working person I know and has instilled in me the importance and value of hard work. With their influence and support I pursued my passion for real-world solutions to environmental issues with a focus on water resources and their importance.
How did you get your start working with the PIRGs?
After undergrad I was working at a bakery while looking for jobs and applied to multiple jobs within The Public Interest Network (TPIN), although at the time I didn’t know they were all part of the same network. Megan Tanner did my interview, and I got my first job with TPIN directing the Fund’s Boston canvass office. We worked on the Save the Bees and Stop the Overuse of Antibiotics campaigns and [current Fund National Canvass Director] Emily Reid was my staff director. That following summer, I worked alongside Kristin Jackson to run the Boston summer office. It was intense, but we raised a ton of money and built up a great team of canvassers, many of whom transitioned into the winter months.
What skills or lessons from that experience did you carry with you into other roles?
The canvass taught me about people power and the skill of asking for money from strangers -- two lessons that have definitely come in handy in my work as an advocate with PIRG!
What did you do after wrapping up your first stint with The Public Interest Network?
I left the Fund after a little over a year to pursue a life-long dream of living abroad and to return to school for a MSc. in Natural Resource Management at a university in Norway.
What brought you back?
I returned from Norway right before the pandemic shut everything down. I spent some time in my hometown helping a friend build a sourdough bread delivery business before returning to work at U.S. PIRG. John Rumpler had reached out to me about working on Environment America’s clean water team after seeing my #OpentoWork label on LinkedIn. While the position on his team ended up not working out, John directed me to the closely related toxics team at PIRG.
What are you most excited about in your current work?
It’s been fun to ‘peek behind the curtain’ and see how campaigns like the ones we built support for on the canvass are developed and built. And I’ve enjoyed working on toxics and how it relates to drinking water and public health. My personal passion is clean water access and policy. Approaching these issues through the lens of toxics has been equally infuriating and inspiring and has added fuel to the passion I have for the right to clean water.
Give us the insider look at your work-from-home setup: any frequent pet visitors or interesting scenery off screen you care to share?
My day-to-day work buddy, Norbert:
What else would you like people to know about you?
I’m an avid knitter, outdoor enthusiast, Harry Potter book fan, and sitcom consumer/rewatcher looking for recommendations. You can find me on twitter @EmilyR_USPIRG and through email at erogers@pirg.org.
