We recently connected with Jason Marion and have shared our conversation below.

Jason , appreciate you joining us today. Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style. Do you have an interesting story from that stage of your career that you can share with us?

When I was doing a summer internship with one of U.S. EPA’s national research and development labs, I recall while traveling to a stream site we were studying, being challenged by a senior scientists about what types of advanced education I planned on pursuing after my environmental science and biology programs. At that time, and still true today, I was particularly passionate about being in the outdoors, having had several experiences with assessing water quality and forest management practices, and loving to spend time hiking. However, upon indicating that I was interested in those fields of study and activities, I was asked to think about why. To which I recounted something about being passionate about the diversity of life, being outdoors, seeing all the different species of fish, trees, birds, and so forth. I was then told or asked, are those problems that need solved, to which I responded something about biodiversity loss and how vital ecosystems are to are survival, and like Aldo Leopold said something about removing too many fine screws before we can’t put the ecosystem together — to which I was then interrupted, “Do people care about those things?” I responded something like, “most people? No probably not, sadly, or… at least not yet, and definitely not among people around here”. He then responded, “People, in general, only care about the environment when it makes them sick or hits them in their pocketbook.” Those comments sent me on a trajectory that I need to connect environmental quality with people’s individual health and their personal or business finances. To this day, I am reminded and often let others know, the U.S. EPA’s mission is “to protect human health and the environment.” This ordering was presumably intentional, not alphabetical, human health is prioritized first despite alphabetically occurring after environment.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

As a kid growing up, I always enjoyed being around water, playing in creeks, and being outside. While in high school, I started working with the state park service in Ohio at a 10,000-acre park that included a 2,200-acre lake and had two swimming beaches. While going to school for recreation and wildlife management at Hocking College, and then environmental science at Morehead State in Kentucky, I was always connecting my work and my education in my head. When it was time for me to do my dissertation in public health, specializing in environmental health and epidemiology, I did my field work at seven Ohio lakes administered by the state park system. From that experience, I learned about fecal indicator bacteria, specifically, E. coli, and I observed how diarrheal illnesses increased in swimmers following swimming in contaminated water. leading to some of this work being influential in the U.S. EPA’s recreational guidelines for the amount of E. coli that are so numerous an advisory should be issued. Upon taking an academic job at Eastern Kentucky University as an assistant professor of environmental health science, I was welcomed into the Kentucky Environmental Health Association, where I got to learn from practitioners and health inspectors. I also was asked to mentor to Master of Public Health students in environmental health including two All-American cross-country runners from Kenya’s Rift Valley region. Those two students had not been home in over five years, and also needed to do a graduate project, and I was pretty good at securing grant funds and doing water quality research, so we carried out health study related to water in their home villages. There, drinking water and sanitation infrastructure was non-existent, as were the water testing resources. In working with the students, we identified some options for assessing fecal contamination of their drinking water sources, and carried out a study that proved useful in getting one community an improved water source based upon the research. Personally, I also learned of the need for practical assessment tools that would work in their villages, and that could also hopefully work for our folks in Appalachian Kentucky with stream water, spring water, and well water monitoring for fecal bacteria. Given a lot of lessons learned along the way, and with the help of the Eastern Kentucky University Board of Regents Innovation Fund, I was able to develop ColiGlow, a field practical way of quantifying E. coli densities in water anywhere. EKU and several other partners have supported me, and my new company, Eastern Scientific, with patent related filings. I am particularly grateful for the wisdom of my former students and their home communities, as well as experiences I have had in Appalachia on the practical needs for water testing, that I have informed my ability to produce at least one contribution in this area, and should this product be successful, I am intent on giving back to these communities that mean so much to me in ways superior to my scientific endeavors.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

The to-do list of items to consider and think through when embarking upon developing a successful business is hefty. The paperwork, while necessary but laborious, along with somewhat bureaucratic processes can seem daunting for starting a business. Also, developing a business plan with input from experts, and getting support or guidance on a business are not always easy from peers, especially in a region or community where new business growth or success has not historically occurred, even more so in technology or biotech fields. Given those challenges, a very successful strategy is to engage with the local SBDC and any innovation hubs aimed at commercialization of products or services provided by small businesses. The mentorship, encouragement, and sounding board I’ve received from those entities have been helpful for me in Kentucky.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

For me, I have benefited from years of unintentional customer discovery. As I was involved in citizen science projects as a volunteer and then as a scientist, I was committed to solving problems that were frequently coming up in my community and academic research work. Also, as I saw costly items creating barriers for my peer groups to get water quality results, I ended up being inquisitive about how we could to things better. To date, my reputation has been enhanced by continuing to be engaged, be willing to give back and perform ongoing community service, and treating all those experiences as also learning opportunities. By being a good listener and cordial has been more helpful than anything for building a reputation.

Contact Info:

• Website: eastern-scientific.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-w-marion-2499b337
• Other: [email protected]

Image Credits
Photos courtesy of Jason Marion