MPR News profiles Mitchell Hamline’s Expert Witness Training Academy

Minnesota Public Radio News featured Mitchell Hamline’s one-of-a-kind Expert Witness Training Academy, now in its sixth year, in a feature story that aired Thursday, Aug. 4, during MPR’s Morning Edition program. You can listen to the story on the MPR News website.

The story, by MPR environmental reporter Elizabeth Dunbar, explored the academy’s efforts to help climate scientists better explain their research findings to lawmakers, judges, and juries.

During the weeklong training, Mitchell Hamline faculty, as well as several judges and attorneys, guide participants through mock exercises that simulate congressional hearings and jury trials. Instructors then give the scientists feedback on how best to present their findings in language everyone can understand.

The program is directed by Mitchell Hamline professors John Sonsteng and Jim Hilbert. Hilbert told MPR that this type of training will become more crucial in the future as science, politics, and the law intersect.

“We recognize that in the coming future we’re probably going to have a lot of legal disputes and policy scenarios that are going to be about the climate,” he said. “If scientists are unable to communicate their science effectively, we end up with policy making decisions that are suboptimal.”

The Expert Witness Training Academy runs through Friday, Aug. 5, on the Mitchell Hamline campus.