Employment History

 

Edna Bailey Sussman Internship - Innovative Stormwater Treatment for Beneficial Use - 2015

 

With funding from a Sussman fellowship I worked with City and County of Denver Stormwater and Wastewater Management Department to evaluate the effectiveness of existing and innovative Best Management Practices (BMPs) to treat storm-water in the Berkeley neighborhood in west Denver to a quality appropriate for beneficial use (i.e., urban irrigation) and for cleaner discharge into receiving waters.

My tasks included developing a method to quantify the runoff from the watershed and to estimate the contaminant concentrations in the water prior to installing sampling equipment. I did this by using a temporal averaging technique to apply data from several near-by precipitation gages to the area of interest to get an approximate average annual rainfall. Then I collected data on the watershed using GIS and from the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) to estimate the runoff ratio for the watershed, and used a program called WINSLAMM and more in depth land cover data on the types of impervious surfaces to estimate the contaminant concentrations. I then conducted an in-depth literature review on BMPs to determine the best treatment train to meet the specific needs of this watershed. I helped in planning the final design of the BMP treatment scheme. My role fit into a larger project and my recommendations were submitted via a final report to the design engineer.

 

The University of Arizona – 2012-2013

 

Laboratory Assistant – As a laboratory assistant I aided in the improvement of undergraduate lab facilities. The main project was to design a cooling water system to supply several heat exchangers. The goal was to conserve water by circulating the cooling water. My tasks included performing heat exchange calculations, designing the system in AutoCAD, and installing the piping network required to deliver the water. I also worked to design a new procedure for running a undergraduate experiment on UV disinfection.

 

Research Assistant – As a research assistant I worked for a group that was researching methods to increase to efficiency of algae-to-biofuel processes. With help from my mentor I worked to increase lipid production in algae cells by limiting the nutrients the algae received. My tasks included: daily data collection on growth, preparation of standard media, as well as to extract and analyze the number of lipid cells in samples. I also worked to develop a new method to quickly quantify lipid content by using a fluorescent dye that binds to the lipids and using a special machine the amount of fluorescence can be quantified and related to the amount of lipids in a sample.

 

Golden Bike Shop (2014-current) – I work in customer service, shipping and receiving, and data management.