Serve Indiana Commissioner and Past Chair Dr. Mark Eutsler of Linden recently completed the Congressional Management Foundation’s National Service Advocacy Academy and earned the National Service Advocate certification. Academy tuition was funded through a grant from the Ballmer Foundation.
Academy graduates receive training on engaging in impactful advocacy through cultivating relationships with congressional offices. Training modules included crafting messages, effective interaction with policymakers, advancing advocacy strategies, and current issues in service advocacy.
A past three-term chair of the Serve Indiana Commission, Eutsler is active in America’s Service Commissions and its States for Service Coalition, serving on its inaugural Leadership Council. The council successfully advocated for passage of the Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Act in the 115th Congress in September 2018, which fully funded the Corporation for National and Community Service through September 2019, so the agency remained open and operational during the 35-day federal government shutdown from December 2018-January 2019.
Eutsler is also a member of the Bayh-Dole Coalition, which educates policymakers, the general public, and the news media about the positive impacts of the Bayh-Dole Act, also known as the Patent and Trademark Law Amendments Act (Pub. L. 96-517, December 12, 1980). It empowers universities, small businesses, and non-profit institutions to take ownership of inventions made during federally funded research, so they can license these basic inventions for further applied research and development and broader public use. It also encourages private-sector investment needed to turn basic government-funded research into tested and approved products, requires these products to be manufactured domestically, and ensures royalties for universities to further advance basic research and education.
After serving a 20-year term on the US Selective Service System Local and District Appeal boards, Eutsler is entering his 11th year as a State Resource Volunteer for the agency. At the state level, he is a former member of the Indiana Occupational Safety Standards Commission, where he was elected to three terms as its chair serving during the construction of Lucas Oil Stadium and the Indianapolis International Airport Midfield Terminal.
