This Winter quarter, Environmental Studies brought together 5 environmental consultants to share their experience in the field of consulting, offer advice to students and alumni, and answer questions. The room was full and the discussion was robust.

The world of environmental consulting is so diverse, and adviser Ana Wieman invited panelists in the field who could shed light on their day-to-day work and answer questions about what they do, how to get into this field, and what skills are required.

Speakers included:

• Courtney Schaumberg, Staff Hydrogeologist at Sound Earth Strategies, Inc.who works on the remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater
• Scott Percival, Associate at Cascadia Consulting who provides customer and contractor support for retrofit projects focused on improving the energy efficiency of homes and has a background in waste management
• Alison Sienkiewicz, Stormwater Staff Scientist at Sound Earth Strategies, Inc. a graduate of our Environmental Studies program who helps industrial and construction clients manage their stormwater to remain in compliance with environmental regulations
• Jimmy Mahady, Research Associate at Ross Strategic who was a Fulbright Scholar in Uruguay working on the advancement of renewable energy and now contributes his research, policy development, and project coordination skills to climate and energy projects like the Pacific Coast Collaborative’s West Coast Electric Fleets initiative and the EPA’s Climate Showcase Communities
• Sarah Sanborn, Project Coordinator at EnviroIssues, another alum from Environmental Studies at UW, who uses her communications skills to support several different projects including public transportation planning, cleanup and restoration outreach, conservation meeting facilitation, and park redesign public involvement.

The panel was moderated by Ned Schaumberg, an instructor in our program who teaches ENVIR 300: Communication for Environmental Studies.

A huge shout out to Ned and Ana for putting together this event, and to everyone who attended! We had a blast.

Students in Sean McDonald’s ENVIR 495F Environmental Communication class took to Twitter to live tweet, and student Kayla Harrington developed an excellent account via Storify from start to finish. View Kayla’s recap.

Meet Your Future is a quarterly event (panel discussions, Q&A, networking mixer) that brings working professionals into the student space. The discussions are hosted by Environmental Studies at the University of Washington. Students from Environmental Studies and related majors as well as alumni are invited to attend and interact with the professionals; a faculty member usually moderates the discussion. 

Meet Your Future events are held during the second or third week of each quarter. For further information and to participate on a panel please contact Ana Wieman at enviradv@uw.edu or call 206-616-2461.

Next event: date TBD (April 4-15)

5:30-7:00pm
Wallace Hall Commons

Parking provided for panelists
Pizza provided