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As a park ranger for the Maryland Park Service, an agency within the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, every day presents unique challenges and exciting opportunities. The diversity of the tasks and situations park rangers assist with creates an engaging work environment. In the field, rangers provide safety to support an enjoyable park experience for all patrons. Through training, we ensure the park staff is knowledgeable and prepared for any situation. Rangers participate in daily park operations, maintenance, and historical and environmental interpretation. Rangers also design, build, and maintain trails, and also work with volunteer groups and assist with occasional wildfire or prescribed burn.

As certified emergency medical responders, we also assist people in need. In the office, you can find us behind the scenes completing an array of tasks of keeping our parks safe, functional, beautiful, and sustainable. In summary, rangers get to oversee some of the most beautiful public lands in Maryland! My career as a Maryland Park Ranger continues to be very rewarding as I funnel my passion and knowledge gained from SU, specifically the environmental studies major, into local ground-level action.

I graduated from the ENVR program at ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ in 2007. After graduation, I began working in the biological sciences with the United States National Park Service. While working for the NPS, I earned a Certificate in GIS from Penn State University and an M.S. in Environmental Biology from Hood College in Frederick, Md., where I studied ontogenetic shifts in intraguild predation between forest salamanders and wolf spiders. I then received a full tuition scholarship for a Ph.D. in Entomology and Wildlife Ecology from the University of Delaware, where I studied forest spider community ecology in national parks.

I currently work as a manager of natural resources and environmental policy in the National Park Service, where I specifically manage natural resources along the Potomac River in Maryland. My research focuses on how environmental factors influence the spatiotemporal variation seen in invertebrate and vertebrate communities.

I graduated from SU in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and a Bachelor of Science in Biology. After spending some time in the Chesapeake Conservation Corps working in environmental education and stewardship, I moved to Pennsylvania for an academic-support position in the Environmental Studies Department at Dickinson College. Fast-forward two years and I had accepted a position on the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Susquehanna Watershed Environmental Education Program, a canoe-based program that gives school students the opportunity to explore their local rivers and streams while conducting investigations into water quality, ecology, and other watershed issues.

After two years in a canoe, I traded in my paddle for the opportunity to lead a very different type of education program. I now serve as the Student Leadership Coordinator at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Pennsylvania office. Our student leadership program combines two of CBF’s organizational strengths – education and advocacy. We do this by offering students opportunities to expand their knowledge of bay issues through immersive outdoor field experiences and encouraging students to advocate for bay issues which are meaningful to them. Through this position, I work with dedicated high school students, advising them on how to become conservation leaders and advocates in their own communities. Every day is different – some days I find myself planting trees with students along a farmer’s stream and other days, we are meeting state representatives at the capitol to advocate on behalf of clean water in Pennsylvania.

The most exciting part of my job is being able to give to students a platform from which to raise their own voices and helping to shape the next generation of stewards in the Chesapeake Bay region. For example, the students I work with drafted a bill to designate the Eastern hellbender salamander (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis) as the official state amphibian of Pennsylvania. Their creativity and enthusiasm never ceases to inspire me! I am so grateful to SU’s Environmental Studies Department for preparing me to work in such an interdisciplinary field – it was truly an invaluable education!

After graduating from ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ with an Environmental Studies and Philosophy degree in 2013, I was hired as a teacher/naturalist at the Echo Hill Outdoor School in Worton, Md. The school is a residential outdoor education program that provides students with an opportunity to explore their environment hands-on by using the outdoor environment as our classroom.

Echo Hill's location - situated on the Chesapeake Bay with a beach front, forests, and freshwater marshes - makes our program unique and allows us to explore a variety of ecosystems. Students may stay at the program anywhere from one to five days and take part in classes that include Chesapeake Bay studies on our boats the Spirit and the Twilight, swamp walks, canoeing, garbology, ecology, seeds and weeds, early American studies, as well as our high and low adventure courses. My time with the Environmental Studies department provided me with knowledge and experience for this new journey in outdoor education.

I graduated from ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ in 2016 with a B.A.in Environmental Studies, a B.A. in Psychology, and a minor in Outdoor Education Leadership. After one year of being the director of a family adventure resort, I transitioned into a dream position as Assistant Director of Recreation at Berry College in Rome, Ga. I serve as the supervisor for the Berry Outdoor Leadership Development (BOLD) program and the Outdoor Recreation department. My primary responsibilities include risk management for our 27,000 acre campus and challenge course, coordinating both leadership and team-building programs for our campus, schools, churches, and corporate groups, and serving as the catalyst for environmental stewardship and education. ENVR’s interdisciplinary approach established my “niche.” For that, I am eternally grateful!

I currently serve as an Environmental and Occupational Health Program Manager at the Migrant Clinicians Network (MCN), a non-profit that prides itself as a force for health justice for the mobile poor. I manage a variety of grant-funded programs that address the environmental and work-related health needs of vulnerable workers. I have coordinated community health worker programs to reduce pesticide exposure, research projects to better equip primary care providers to address environmental health, and community outreach projects to reduce chemical exposures among the children of agricultural workers.

After graduating from SU with a BA in Environmental Studies and double minors in Spanish and Sociology, I went on to pursue a Master of Science in Public Health degree at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. I enjoyed specializing in health education programming, evaluation and monitoring, and environmental health. I had interned with MCN during my time at SU, and knew it would be a great place to grow a career in health justice. Thank you to the ENVR program at SU for offering me a strong foundation in environmental knowledge, critical thinking skills, and most importantly, a passion for environmental justice!