We would like to welcome our new Sustainability Graduate Assistant, Ana Quevedo! Ana (pictured on Mt. Lemmon in Tucson, AZ) is a current Environmental Management and Sustainability graduate student with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). Some of her tasks as part of our sustainability team will include promoting campus sustainability efforts, making contributions to the Office of Sustainability’s social media channels, promoting degrees in the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences, assisting with the organization of SEU’s annual Earth Week celebration, and attending Environmental Stewardship Committee meetings.
Ana is looking forward to starting her graduate studies as part of the fifth cohort of the Professional Science Master in Environmental Management and Sustainability (MSEM) program. The MSEM degree allows students to conduct fieldwork in four different ecosystems and two different countries, as they spend a month conducting research in Costa Rica. During their last semester in the program MSEM students participate in a full-time internship that allows them to put their skills into practice.
Ana selected the MSEM program at St. Edwards because of its multidisciplinary approach towards environmental science and sustainability. This degree will allow her to become a well-rounded professional who will be prepared to advocate for our environment and contribute to our society. Ana has always taken an active role in her community by leading green activities such as recycling and water conservation campaigns. She is especially passionate about air quality, and is aware that our community air quality needs improvements and has an important role in public health. Beyond promoting environmental justice, she plans to contribute to assessing the air quality of our area and raising awareness among the St. Edward’s student community to help improve it.
As an undergraduate student at UTEP, Ana was part of the Border Air Quality program funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, an opportunity that further fueled her interest in air quality and enabled her to raise community awareness. She also worked as a research assistant at New Mexico State University (NMSU) with the New Mexico State climatologist. At NMSU she organized and interpreted ozone and metrological data, as well as dust event images from time-lapse cameras to assess the New Mexico drought. She co-authored an abstract presented at the American Meteorological Society annual conference on research about a dangerous dust problem on the highway by Lordsburg, NM. Ana also developed strong organizational and leaderships skills working as a research assistant at the Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Aerospace Academy funded by NASA. Ana is highly motivated to make positive contributions to our sustainability efforts on campus.
Ana is excited to start this academic year working with the Office of Sustainability. She will work hard to help us meet our goals and to create new ones. Ana is new to Austin and is aware that this might make the position more challenging but she is confident that she will make valuable contributions to our campus.