Alumni Updates

Updates from March 2015

Stephanie Haan-Amato Stephanie graduated in Spring 2001 with a combined major in ENVS and Biology.  She received honors in her Senior Comprehensive Requirement as well as department and college honors.Stephanie joined the Asombro Institute for Science Educaton in March 2012. Most recently, she was involved with creating an educational video about kids participating in an Asombro Institute for Science Education activity using rainout shelters to study the impacts of climate change on vegetation.

Conor Paris (2013)
Since graduating with his ENVS degree, Conor has acquired a full time job working near his hometown for the California Conservation Corps.  Before the CCC, Conor worked for a short time with a sustainable pest management company, but found the CCC to be more applicable to his career interest.  In the CCC, he works with the Energy Crew, where he improves energy efficiency at schools across the state.  Conor credits courses he took in ENVS at UCSC including ENVS 142: Energy Politics and Policy and ENVS 110: Institutions , the Environment, and Economic Systems, as helpful in his current position, but he recommends taking as many courses you can to broaden your perspective and understanding of the environment.  Conor plans on attending graduate school, but wanted to take some time away from academia so he could figure out what he wants most out of life.  Conor’s biggest piece of advice for those still finishing their undergraduate degree is to do as many internships as you can, as they establish lasting professional relationships and provide for a more meaningful and advantageous work experience.  Despite not knowing what life would be like upon completion of his undergrad, Conor has tackled every challenge brought forth, while still leaving a positive impact on those around him, including the environment.

Updates from January 2015

Julia Dolloff (2013)
Julia is an Executive Fellow through CSU Sacramento’s Capital Fellows Program. For 10 months, she is working with the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), a department under the umbrella of the California Environmental Protection Agency. The Fellowship is an opportunity for her to gain hands on experience working for state government, and to learn about the implementation and enforcement of environmental policy by working on various projects for the Department. Project areas include working on state's recycling and waste management programs and policies, and on environmental justice issues. Julia hopes that her Fellowship year will kick start a career in public service working to protect the environment and natural resources through public policy. UCSC’s Environmental Studies Department and the educational and internship opportunities offered were essential in developing an understanding of environmental law and policy and in preparing her for the Fellowship Program.

Updates from October 2013

Kathlyn Franco (2012) since graduation she has worked at SAVE THE FROGS! It is a local nonprofit dedicated to amphibian conservation. She is now the SAVE THE FROGS! Education Coordinator and hopes to get more students involved in amphibian conservation. During the summer she is hired by the US Forest Service to conduct small mammal surveys at the Stanislaus Experimental Forest in the Sierras.

Lindsey Herrema, (2007) graduated from Presidio Graduate School in 2011 with an MBA in Sustainable Business. After graduation she started a company with some classmates called The Can Van, which is a mobile beer canning service for commercial craft breweries in California. They have been running the business about two years now. www.thecanvan.com

Emily Glanville (2004) since graduating from UCSC in 2004 went on to earn a master of science degree from UC Davis in Community Development and moved back to Santa Cruz to work at Save Our Shores, a marine conservation non-profit. She was Program Coordinator for SOS then as a Program Manager and ran education, cleanup and advocacy programs. After nearly 5 years at SOS, she took a job with Ecology Action. She is currently in Ecology Action's Sustainable Transportation Department and runs the bi-annual Bike To Work/School events and also conducts community workshops and forums on a number of sustainable transportation topics.

Caitlin Doughty (2010) followed up on her stellar UCSC internship career with other internships each summer from 2010-2012 interning at Resource Conservation District of San Diego (5 months), Global Green USA - DC Office (6 months) and Amazon Watch, DC Office (1 year). Since 2012 she has been a graduate student at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and expects to graduate in May 2014 with a Master of Environmental Science degree and a concentration on conservation, development and climate adaptation in local communities (mainly in Latin America).

Daniel da Rosa (2008) worked at the UCSC Chadwick Garden as an apprentice in 2009. He is currently employed with the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) in the area of Soil Conservationist. He is recently a new father!

Jennifer Helfrich (2010) spent her first summer as a graduate helping the UCSC Sustainability Office develop a long-term fundraising strategy. Later that year she traveled for a few months before beginning work with a San Francisco non-profit start-up, Media Cause, as a grant-writer and public relations manager. Next she moved to Berlin, Germany where she worked as a researcher on renewable energy planning and international climate change policy. In late 2012 Jennifer returned to the Bay Area where she joined the Sustainability Office of the San Francisco Unified School District to help redefine and develop the district-wide energy efficiency program. She now lives in Oakland and works for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s Power Enterprise, a city agency that manages municipal electricity, where she helps with energy efficiency program development, GoSolarSF, and smart grid technologies.

Abigail Huetter (2013) graduated with majors in ENVS and Film and Digital Media. Abby is excited to that she is following her 5-year plan, developed in the Spring of 2012 during her ENVS internship orientation. She is currently enrolled as a Masters of Fine Arts student at Montana State University in Bozeman, pursuing Science and Natural History Filmmaking.

Tegwyn Lewis Pine (2007) is attending UCSF for a Master's in Nursing, specializing in Pediatrics (so I'll be a pediatric nurse practitioner in the end). She is planning to finish in 2015. Currently Tegwyn is working at San Francisco General Hospital. She still plays ultimate Frisbee and visits Santa Cruz and the farm every now and then!

Updates from April 2013:

Justin Cerruti, ’12, is a Construction Specialist in Santa Cruz. He currently works as a carpenter at Castle Enterprise and is “an environmental liaison between businesses and consumers.”

Adam Radpour, ’12, writes that after graduating last June he went back to work with Condor Country Consulting in Martinez as a Biological Technician, and was part of a group looking at the California Tiger Salamander in and around the Naval Weapons Base in Concord.  “In January, I went down to Long Beach to intern for the California Coastal Commission, in their Enforcement Division.  This has been a hugely rewarding position; although unpaid, it is full time, and has allowed me to learn a great deal about regulating coastal development, compliance, and communicating with municipal agencies, property owners, developers, community organizations and members of public.  There is a lot of investigation work that goes into dealing with violations of the Coastal Act, and I am in the thick of it.”

Rachel Carson, '11, is the 1st employee at early-stage start-up company in Silicon Valley, ReadyPulse, a social marketing company that works with some of the largest retail brands to help leverage their social media.

Frank Proulx, ’11, is a graduate student at UC Berkeley in the SafeTREC program studying civil engineering.

Anandi Van Diepen, ‘11, is a writing and editing professional at Yale University’s Center for Science and Social Science Information.

Tara da Silva, ’11, is a scientific aide with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in Sacramento.  She is analyzing bills on conservation and has worked on wetland mitigation banking. 

Michael Geneau, ’11, has had a few different environmental jobs since graduating.  He work as a contracting biologist on the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generation Facility, and then worked at the Irvine Ranch Conservancy.  Most recently he worked for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center.  He is now planning to go back to graduate school.

Erik Eriksen, ’11, is waiting tables and looking for an ENVS job in Denver, Colorado.

Angela Paige Miller, ‘10, now works for the San Francisco Office of the Environment managing the department’s social media strategy, implementation and outreach. Formerly she had internships as a communications intern at the Environmental and Energy Study Institute in Washington, D.C. and also at Strategic Energy Innovations (SEI) in San Rafael.

DeAnna Von Halle, ’10, has been working as a seasonal park ranger for the National Park Service since graduation. Her most recent position is in southeast Utah, working for Canyonlands National Park as an Education Technician. She teaches elementary school students in San Juan County the science of canyon country through curriculum based programs and field trips.

Louise Huttinger, 09, coordinates and manages carbon asset development and on-going verifications of improved cookstove and water treatment technology projects for Impact Carbon in San Francisco.

Katie Simkover, ’09, writes “I have been working at Open Sky Wilderness Therapy out of Durango, Colorado for almost two years now. I'm a Senior Field Guide there, and I take at risk and emotionally troubled teenage girls on backpacking trips. It’s a holistic, mind, body, spirit program where we teach yoga and meditation and eat organic food. It has been very rewarding working there. Here's our website if you're interested in what we do.” http://www.openskywilderness.com/

Gina Bartolacelli, ’08, currently works at Tomatero Organic Farms in Watsonville. She manages their community supported agriculture CS) program, Harvest to Harvest which “currently feeds 50 families in Oakland, Marin, and San Francisco. She writes a weekly newsletter on health, nutrition, and local/national farm news and recipe ideas.

Kimberly Minor, ’08, expects to receive her MPA in Environmental Science and Policy this spring from Columbia University. She recently became a Graduate Intern at the New York City Office of Emergency Management.

Jen Stanfield. ’06, is the Stewardship Coordinator Sonoma County Regional parks where she manages 400 volunteers and 9000 acres.

Yoshimi Yoshida, ’04, returned to Japan last year after doing graduate work in New Zealand. She writes, “I've felt the need to do something that requires a risk to make a positive change with my career, otherwise it felt like nothing would change.  Late last year I became an environmental scientist with an environmental risk consultancy firm based in Tokyo. Now I have a full time job with Intel Japan K.K., assisting their internal operation (which has nothing to do with the environment), while I am working towards establishing my own business in environmental marketing and sales focused on energy.”

Shelley Ryan, ’00, completed a master’s degree in Museum Education.  She recently complete Al Gore’s climate change training program. She is planning to move to Costa Rica in the near future.

Silver Hartmann, ’99 works for the California State Parks, Sierra District, Lake Tahoe area where she has been examining the interactions between the North American beaver and aspen stands.

Kirsten Liske, ’91, is Vice President at Ecology Action in Santa Cruz. She currently leads the Pollution Prevention and Zero Waste Division.

John Foster, ’88, is currently Senior Manager of Quality, Food Safety & Organic Integrity at Earthbound Farm. John is responsible for ensuring the organic integrity of all products supplied to and handled by Earthbound Farm.

Updates from January-March, 2013:

Gabi Kirk, ’12 After a fall working at the Organic Farming Research Foundation and fundraising for the Sierra Club, Gabi is starting 2013 by leaving for five months of travel in the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean. She will WWOOF in Israel and the West Bank, and visit Jordan, Turkey, and Greece.

Alex Chavanne, ’11 is a kayak expedition guide in Patagonian Chile. He expects to go back to school after this summer to pursue an engineering degree.

Lauren Doucette, '11 She just graduated from the University of San Diego’s paralegal program and has been working in a law firm for the past year in San Diego. She really
wants to get back into coffee production and fair trade market for Latin America, so if anyone with any contacts please let her know.

Grant Marr, '11 writes “since I did my senior paper (for Tim Duane's class) about distributed generation solar energy, I decided to look into solar jobs after graduating. Now I am working at Sungevity, a residential solar company based in Oakland that has been expanding like crazy in the last couple of years. I didn't think I would want to join a sales team, but it is a really fun work environment!”

Frank Proulx,’11 is at UC Berkeley working on his master's in city planning. He just finished his MS in transportation engineering. Frank is primarily interested in studying bike and pedestrian safety.

Julia Berg, ’10 lives in Washington, DC and works for the clean tech government relations practice of the Silicon Valley based law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and
Rosati.

Giulianna Gobbato, ’10 worked as a teacher in Guatemala for 3 months teaching biology, chemistry, and psychobiology to 11th and 12th graders then got a Conservation and Land Management internship and was sent to Zion National Park from May-October 2011 and March-June of 2012. From there Giuliana landed a Conservation and Land Management Internship with Chicago Botanical Garden.

Patty Fung, '10 continues her second year teaching garden and environmental education at Alice Fong Yu Alternative School in San Francisco. AFY is one of San Francisco's
first school garden programs that started in the mid-90s. Patty established the garden's website and blog and you can learn about the history of the garden, what goes on in the garden, and lesson ideas at afygarden.wordpress.com.

Emma Hodges, ’10 teaches preschool through 5th grade students in a variety of hands on science and language arts lessons in a garden setting at the Harding University Partnership School garden program. She is also teaching music and drama at the Harding school in Santa Barbara.

Sarah Goldstein ’10 co-founded Project SAFE (Solar Applications for Empowerment) based in Capetown, South Africa. Project SAFE is an education-based initiative that teaches women about the benefits of solar energy and demonstrates how to make and use solar cookers.

Tyler Pitts '10 works with the Student Conservation Association in New Hampshire. In addition to teaching environmental science lessons for elementary schools across the
state, he leads crews that perform hands-on restoration and trail services for public lands in New England.

Louise Huttinger, ’09 For the past year, Louise has been working for a small non- profit/start up called Impact Carbon.
Impact Carbon develops “carbon assets” from projects in developing countries that use improved cook stoves and other clean household technologies that reduce carbon emissions, improve public health and help achieve development goals.

Rachel Shiozaki '09 is Campaigns Director at yerdle. yerdle is a new platform based in the sharing economy; yerdle helps people give, get, and loan things with their friends, all for free, which protects ecological resources, saves money and strengthens communities. Check it out at www.yerdle.com!

Jessica Sanchez '09 is a Student Conservation Association (SCA) intern with the National Park Service. Her current projects involve mentoring high school students in a high school phenology monitoring internship located at her park as well as writing up scientific reports using data she collected out in the field this past spring/summer season.

Will Spangler '09 is a field biologist/restoration ecologist with H.T. Harvey & Associates, an ecological consulting firm based in Los Gatos. He works on habitat
restoration and revegetation with government agencies, landowners, developers, and contractors around the Bay Area and Central Coast conducting fieldwork, monitoring projects, and writing reports.

Laura "Lily" Kelly, '08, currently she is the Interim Director of Global Green USA's New York City office and their Coalition for Resource Recovery, which is called CoRR. Her job is to coordinate CoRR's recycling and composting pilot projects, which have the goal of accelerating the development and use of products and systems that recover food and paper waste. They are currently working in New York to test systems that are designed to be transferable to other cities across the US.

Erin Middleton '08 does community outreach and engagement regarding climate change at the Community Food and Justice Coalition (CFJC) based in Oakland, CA. CFJC helps connect the dots to build a national movement that is taking back our food system to ensure that the purpose of food is to nourish people, and not for corporate profit.

Stephanie Bishop ‘07 recently completed her master’s degree at San Francisco State University. She is working as a biologist for Garcia and Associates on the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit.

Quinn Cypher ’06 did a Masters’ in Environmental Sustainability in Scotland. He is now a field ecologist with Inland Empire Resource Conservation District.

Jedediah Brodie ’97 is an Assistant Professor in the Zoology Department at the University of Vancouver. He studies how hunting, climate change, and logging affect wildlife populations and plant-animal interactions in tropical forests.

Josiah Clark ’97 is a wildlife restoration habitat consultant based in San Francisco and recently was at UCSC to give a guest lecture in Karen Holl’s Restoration Ecology class.