Research
Valerie
is pursuing her M.S. and PhD in Environmental Engineering. She
is interested in wastewater treatment and the benefits of decentralized
treatment technologies and management. She is focusing on technologies
that parallel natural systems, especially constructed wetlands.
She plans to advance the scientific knowledge about constructed
wetlands by providing data on how soil and vegetation types affect
treatment. She will also research the political and social implications
of decentralized wastewater treatment management and regulations
as part of her dissertation. Other research interests include
sustainability in engineering education. Valerie is a National
Science Foundation IGERT Trainee at Michigan Tech and will be
supported for the latter part of her studies by an NSF Graduate
Fellowship.
Personal
Information
Valerie
hails from Spokane, Washington where she attended Gonzaga University
and earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering. In Washington, she spent
a year on an engineering internship with the USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service where she was introduced to environmental
engineering and conservation management. She moved to Houghton,
Michigan to begin her graduate work in the fall of 2004. She also
spent a semester in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on a student exchange
in the Nelson Mandela School of Public Policy at Southern University
A&M in spring 2005.
Valerie
enjoys running, biking and swimming, especially one after the
other in triathlons. She makes sure to take advantage of the beauty
of the UP and Keweenaw Peninsula by hiking, canoeing and kayaking.
Other hobbies include strumming the guitar, reading books, and
cooking high quality food.
At MTU she is involved with the Sustainable Futures Institute
(SFI) as an SFI Scholar and as editor of the SFI Chronicle, a
quarterly newsletter of sustainability activities at Michigan
Tech. Valerie is also involved with Engineers Without Borders
at MTU as grantwriter on the fundraising committee.
