Environment Program Newsletter: Alumni Successes
Allie Belcher ('20) just began her first semester in her dream program– the Master's Degree in Global Maritime Archaeology program at the University of Malta.
Champagne Cunningham ('20) is now a graduate assistant at Tennessee State University in the Department of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. She will work with with Dr. De'Etra Young and Dr. Thomas Byl to study the effects of urbanization on wetlands.
Sofia Giordano ('20) just accepted her first AmeriCorps job as a member of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. She will continue her work with the oyster shell recycling program, which collects shells from restaurants and uses them to fortify oyster reefs along the Louisiana coast.
Dahlia Martinez ('20) is now a graduate assistant at Eastern Illinois University in the Department of Biological Sciences. She will work with Dr. Columbo to study the Asian carp population in the Wabash River and adjacent waterways.
Steven Gergen ('16) was a naturalist with Audubon Nature Institute until summer 2020 and is now a Junior Environmental Scientist with Horne LLP.
Issy Bottger ('16) moved to Chicago after graduation to pursue urban farming. She has worked for The Nature Conservancy removing invasive plant species and conducting prescribed burns in preserved savannas and prairies. Issy is certified by the Student Conservation Association's All-Women Crew program, and her favorite experience in this work so far has been the time she carried two chainsaws and three gallons of water for 1.5 miles through 2-3 feet of snow to her crew's work location. She is currently pursuing her passion as an artist and doing a lot of gardening and indoor plant design.
Brooke Bullock ('15) is the executive director of Sugar Roots Farm, a non-profit regenerative farm that promotes food justice, food access, organic farming, and the compassionate treatment of farm animals in New Orleans. For more information about Sugar Roots Farm, visit their website here.
Destiny Karash-Givens ('16) is a community leader and head of the science department head at John Q. Adams Middle School in Jefferson Parish. She was named the Teacher of the Year at Adams in 2019 and recently purchased her first house.
Pierce Nordone ('17) has done surveying, GIS stormwater mapping, and led DOT Maintenance Rating Program teams since graduating from Loyola. He is now an ecologist with an environmental engineering firm focusing on ecological resource surveys and assessment of effects reports, permitting, protected species surveys and reports, and federal and state waters delineation in service of government infrastructure contracts.
Leslie Galvez ('19) is employed by Path Light Pro in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area as a Field Compliance Consultant II. She works with developers and builders to protect natural areas from any construction activity, including hazardous waste and excess sediment deposits in compliance with state and county stormwater regulations. She gets to hike to beautiful sites to enforce the regulations and maintain compliance.
George Vena ('16) is a fish technician at Kitoi Bay Hatchery on Afognak Island, Alaska, where pink, chum, coho, and sockeye salmon are raised for the commercial fishing industry. He stumbles into Kodiak brown bears on his way to work in the morning, and hunts, traps, and does sport fishing to pass the time.
Juliet Michalik ('18) worked in the Environmental Quality Control Laboratory for St. Bernard Parish last year running quality control tests on potable water and wastewater and recently started a new position with Domino Sugar, where she will be conducting quality control procedures in their laboratory.
Margaret Adams ('19) accepted a position at Tulane University's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in pursuit of a master's degree.
Shannon Hester ('19) is continuing her conservation biology studies through Project Dragonfly with Miami University. She is teaching biology and anatomy full-time at Xavier High School in Manhattan, New York, this year and hopes to coach cross country/track, if the school hosts sports this season.
Jania Zenon ('19) works with special education children in elementary school and is preparing for the MCAT exam.
Claire Commagere ('19) works at Urban Conservancy as a program assistant for the green infrastructure incentive program Front Yard Initiative and as a program manager the water stewardship camp BASIN.
Diella Packman ('18) is a graduate student in the Freshwater Systems Sustainability Lab at Saint Louis University studying the gut microbiome of freshwater fish in the Meramec watershed in Missouri. Her work is focused on determining how the gut microbiome varies among closely related sympatric species across an array of habitats. She plans to complete her Master’s degree by the summer of 2021.