Lauren Kuby

I am an ASU Senior Global Futures Scientist, having led community engagement for the Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation for decades. I serve on the Elections/Judiciary, Appropriations, and Government committees in the Arizona State Senate and look to my policy staff and outside organizations for science-forward policy development. I bring a scientific perspective to the Senate and connect regularly with ASU researchers on policy decisions.

The Republican majority in the Arizona legislature  advocate for reductions in federal science funding and seem to think that innovation can only happen in private enterprise. The Democratic Caucus is continually fighting this perspective. We stand in support of innovation and investment.

My number-one strategy is to build a Legislature that treats Arizona’s environmental challenges as urgent, science-based policy priorities. Arizona is facing increasingly extreme heat, groundwater depletion, pollution from mining and other industrial activities, and new demands on our water and energy systems from the rapid growth of AI data centers. These issues require stronger oversight, transparency, and long-term planning.

I’m part of an informal legislative climate caucus among House and Senate Democrats, and we are currently prioritizing legislation for the upcoming session. I hope to serve on the Natural Resources Committee, where I would work to advance practical policies that protect Arizona’s natural resources while recognizing the needs of communities and our economy.

We are developing roughly 100 bills (some we have carried and adapted year to year) addressing issues including data-center water and energy use, rural groundwater management, utility transparency and governance, PFAS and microplastic pollution, outdoor-therapy programs, the Green Amendment, and protections against extreme heat.

For data centers in particular, I believe Arizona needs clear standards for water use, transparency about their impacts on local resources, and policies that ensure the costs of increased demand are not simply shifted onto residents and ratepayers. We need to immediately end the tax exemption for data centers, which is draining up to $60 million dollars from our state revenue. For groundwater, we need better monitoring and stronger management in rural areas where communities can be especially vulnerable to depletion – in other words, we need to pass a Rural Groundwater Act

We also need to address pollution from mining and abandoned mine sites through stronger monitoring, accountability, and cleanup efforts. Arizona tribal nations are disproportionately impacted. Arizona’s environmental agencies already identify abandoned mine lands as a significant potential threat to surface and groundwater resources.

Finally, extreme heat needs to be treated as a public-health and infrastructure issue, not simply as an unavoidable feature of living in Arizona. That means considering heat protections for workers, investments in shade and cooling infrastructure, and policies that help communities become more resilient.

Arizona has the opportunity to grow its economy and embrace new technologies without sacrificing its water, health, and natural resources. My goal is to make sure environmental protection and responsible growth are addressed together, using sound science, transparency, and accountability.

The measles outbreak was a wake-up call. As an ASU Global Futures Scientist and advocate for science-based public policy, I believe prevention must be grounded in evidence, transparency, and access to care.

My legislative record reflects that commitment, including sponsorship for a Pandemic Resilience Plan (SB 1362) and efforts to strengthen Arizona’s healthcare workforce. I support fully funding public-health departments, protecting access to vaccines, strengthening disease surveillance, and ensuring schools and healthcare providers can identify and contain outbreaks quickly.

We must also rebuild public trust by communicating clearly about what the scientific evidence tells us. Public health should not be partisan. Preventing outbreaks protects children, seniors, and vulnerable Arizonans—and I will continue advocating for policies that put science and public health ahead of politics.

Yes, we should return to the pre-Trump era when Twitter and Facebook had protections in place.

Public education is non-negotiable.

Arizona’s public schools remain underfunded while billions of taxpayer dollars are being directed to Education Savings Accounts (ESAs). I will continue fighting to restore funding for neighborhood schools, strengthen oversight of ESA spending, and ensure every child—regardless of ZIP code—has access to a quality education.

I support stronger guardrails for ESA funds, including closing unused accounts and returning those funds to public schools, appropriate eligibility requirements, restrictions on luxury purchases, and meaningful financial accountability. Taxpayer dollars should be used to educate Arizona’s children, not be vulnerable to waste or abuse.

The study of science is equally essential—to a person’s education, to a healthy society, and to our ability to respond to the grave environmental and technological challenges we face.

Science education should teach students how to think critically: how to ask questions, evaluate evidence, test ideas, understand uncertainty, and distinguish reliable information from unsupported claims. Science should be taught based on evidence and the scientific method, not political ideology.

This is particularly important in Arizona, where our children will confront challenges including extreme heat, water scarcity, drought, pollution, public health, and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.

Every Arizona student deserves a strong foundation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, preparing them not only for the jobs of today, but to understand and solve the challenges of tomorrow.