Karen Rodriguez & Her Career |
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KAREN RODRIGUEZ & HER CAREER
EnviroEducation.com: Tell us about your career. Where did it begin? How and why did you become
involved with USEPA.
In January or February of 1990, I took a break from my job as a Senior
Account Executive for an audio visual company called Chartmasters and walked
to a Chicago Loop hotel to check out the federal agency job fair. I wandered
past booths of federal employees passing out Form 171 (the federal job
application form) and stopped by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(USEPA) booth. The listings of available job openings showed jobs unfamiliar
to me. I had one graduate course in "Environmental Impact Assessment" from
Northeastern Illinois University where I was taking graduate courses in
Geography and Environmental Studies. I was a volunteer ecological
restorationist with the North Branch Prairie Project.
That's it. Nothing more. I took Form 171, spent my evening filling it out by hand, and returned
it to a foot-high stack of job applications at the USEPA booth on my lunch
hour the next day. Then I forgot about it.
In March, I received a phone call at work. It was a USEPA official calling to
ask me to interview for a temporary job in the Water Division
at USEPA's Region 5, based in Chicago. On the spur of the moment, I set up an
appointment. I walked into an office that matched my expectations of
bureaucrats: crowded and full of paper (two years later the agency moved into
the new and more functional Metcalfe Federal Building). The job I was
interviewing for was as a reviewer of environmental impact assessments for
sewage treatment plants for Region 5 (OH, MI, IN, IL, WI, and MN). No, it
didn't matter I knew nothing of sewage treatment plants. It didn't matter my
knowledge of water problems was zilch. The official liked my previous job
record, my volunteer work, the fact that I had dealt with the public at many
levels, and my interview questions to him about USEPA, in general. He wanted
me to quit my lucrative account executive job for a $20,000 a year temporary
job with no benefits.
For some reason, my instincts said to say yes to his offer. So, much to the
surprise and disbelief of coworkers, I accepted the job and have never
regretted it.
Your specialty within your field is ecological restoration. Why did you
choose it? How did you discover you had a talent for the field?
About a year into my job at USEPA, I was hired into the agency as a permanent
employee. Instead of just reviewing wastewater treatment plant environmental
impact assessments, I also began working with a group that was developing
environmental software programs with students at Purdue University. It became
part of my job to help the group propose and act as a USEPA expert on several
of these educational programs, which are distributed worldwide. My immediate
supervisor liked the idea that I had experience in ecology, at least as a
volunteer; and he really liked the idea that I had a business background. It
was to prove helpful in "selling" the environmental programs to reluctant or
skeptical potential users. (The programs are free and found on the following
website: http://www.epa.gov/glnpo)
Because of my connections with the North Branch Prairie Project (I
volunteered regularly in ecological restoration activities and was the editor
of the group's newsletter), my boss encouraged me to bring ecological issues
to the table. This was not easy because, even though the USEPA mission
clearly states we have responsibilities for human health and the environment,
human health was the focus. Ecology was not part of the picture, except ad
hoc. A small group of people within USEPA was interested and promoted
activities that included environmental considerations.
In late 1991, I was approached by Bill Franz, a USEPA supervisor, Dr. Alan
Haney of the University of Wisconsin-Steven's Point, and Steve Packard, a
North Branch Friend of mine from The Nature Conservancy, about Midwest oak
savannas and their impact on water quality. We decided to hold a conference
to bring oak savanna experts and resource managers together to discuss the
status of savannas. Interestingly, although Alan and Steve are two of the
experts, at the time, no one had a complete list. Only small, local workshops
had ever been held regarding this very rare ecosystem that had once been as
predominant as prairies in the Midwest.
A three-day working session of experts to compile what is known about them
and to share information, and finally, to draft a recovery plan, took place
in February of 1993. About 100 people attended. The next day, a Saturday, a
conference was held with those same experts as speakers, at Northeastern
Illinois University in Chicago. More than 1000 people attended. For the first
time, USEPA was billed as a top organizer of an ecosystem conference. We were
congratulated and welcomed into the ecological restoration community.
Several months later, I was informed about a job in USEPA's Great Lakes
National Program Office (GLNPO). The work was to involve setting up a program
within GLNPO to deal with ecological issues and perhaps, at the Director's
discretion, to run a small grant program in support of restoration projects.
I applied successfully and have been working in GLNPO ever since.
Who or what were the biggest inspirations for your career?
My parents took me insect collecting when I was two. We were family campers
before it was popular to do so, spending time in the national parks during
the summers.
More recently, the North Branch Prairie Project and all its fine volunteers
inspired me. Here was a group of people of all backgrounds working together
in heat or cold, and mosquitoes or snow because they believed they could
change things, make things better, correct past mistakes. And they were
cheerful about it. Specifically, John and Jane Balaban and Steve Packard, who
are often consulted by professional botanists in plant identifications as
well as on ecological restoration techniques, made me feel as though I had
something to contribute. Susanne Masi, my good friend, handed me the job of
editor of the North Branch Newsletter, trusting that I would do the job
right.
Finally, Mike Bland, my boss at USEPA at the time, encouraged me to become an
agency expert on oak savannas and then on other ecological issues. He said
the agency needed someone with energy and communication skills who could
bring the agency to the table to deal with ecological restoration issues. And
it may as well be me.
What do you enjoy most and least about your job with USEPA and your career?
My current position with USEPA gives me the freedom to be creative, to write,
to meet people of all different environmental backgrounds. By creative, I
mean I get the opportunity to change things, to figure out, after a bit of
exploring, what needs to be done and why. It's a challenge, in a place as big
as the Great Lakes, to get the attention of people to work on a specific
problem. But when it works! What satisfaction! I get to write articles,
papers, paragraphs, whatever I need to do to get the job done. Writing is
always a challenge for me, but that's why I like to write. Finally, I meet
the most knowledgeable people in the environmental business across the basin.
What good friendships have developed as a result.
I do not enjoy the constant stream of paperwork demanded of me as a federal
employee. The rules can be constraining. The challenge is to constantly push
the envelope-without breaking some rule that might be inconspicuous or might
look as though it doesn't apply. It helps to have a good supervisor who is
knowledgeable about the ins and outs of the bureaucracy.
You're also co-founder and editor of "Seeding the Snow," a women's journal of
nature writing and artwork. What's this about, and why do you do it?
The ecological restoration movement in the Chicago area is about 20 years
old. There must be 3,000 people involved in doing hands-on restoration, maybe
many more. My involvement dates to fall of 1989. I went to a North Branch
Prairie Project workday at Sauganash Prairie Grove on Chicago's north side.
It was a hot, muggy, mosquitoey fall day. By noon I was wondering what in the
world I was doing. I was bit-up and sweaty from head to toe. I had been using
a small saw and loppers to cut away brush in what looked to me like an old
field. Larry Hodak, the site steward, halted to the work and called
everyone around. He thanked us for our hard work. Then, he showed us what we
had done that morning, filling in the hacked up-looking field with an image
of tallgrass prairie grasses and flowers. I saw it, or imagined it rather.
And I understood. And I came back Sunday after Sunday. I became
the North Branch's newsletter editor which I immensely enjoyed because I got
to capture in words what was happening on the ground.
Then in July of 1994, a group of Chicago area women traveled to Nachusa
Grasslands, a 1000-acre Nature Conservancy preserve in western Illinois, for
a women's campout. We were exploring how women saw themselves in the
ecological restoration movement. And we found out our roles are the same as
the men's, but we, as women, wanted to contribute more. We got together for
potluck dinners after that. We exchanged restoration stories, read to each
other from our journals or our poetry. And decided to publish a journal of
women's nature writing and artwork that would begin to interpret our
ecological restoration work.
The name "Seeding the Snow" is symbolic.
It was suggested on a cold winter
day in 1997, on the Lake Street Beach in Miller, Indiana, just before we were
to go to print with our first journal issue. In the Chicago area, we pick
seeds in the fall and sow them as soon as possible after picking in areas
where brush has been removed. Sometimes it snows when we sow. The hope is
that the seeds germinate next spring and bring new life to areas we have
worked on. "Seeding the Snow" is about bringing new life to the ecological
restoration movement.
The journal is in its fourth year. We publish twice a year. We have about 200
subscribers from all over the Midwest and that is growing. In the fall of
1999, we hosted, with WomanMade Gallery of Chicago, an art exhibit of women
nature artists from all over the country. The Chicago Tribune and the
Cleveland Plain Dealer have featured us on their women's pages. We are
hosting a women's writers' workshop featuring Stephanie Mills next March at
the North Park Village Nature Center
in Chicago. We have presented papers on the journal at various conferences in San Francisco, Maine, Vermont and
Kalamazoo. And, we still have potlucks several times a year.
THE ACTUAL WORK
Tell us about what you do as the Team Leader for ecological restoration for
the Great Lakes National Program Office. How much time do you spend in the
office and in the field?
My job at the USEPA's Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) is
multi-faceted. I am the team leader of the Ecological Protection and
Restoration Team (the E Team), made up of about eight other GLNPO staff, each
of whom have other responsibilities beyond the team. Our team, and hence, my
role as team leader, is in five broad areas. First, we run a small grant
program. Depending on the amount of money in our budget (determined by the US
Congress and the President), we award small grants for on-the-ground
protection and restoration demonstration project throughout the basin. We
have a $1.4 million a year budget, so that's a lot of small grants. After
awarding, we must manage the grants. That means paperwork and visits to
project sites to make sure things are going well.
These site visits are our time in the field. We don't do restoration work
ourselves thus far. We give away money to agencies (federal, state, local,
non-governmental organizations, universities etc.) to do the work. We are in
the field to observe and listen and monitor the progress of the grant. We
also attempt to put final grant reports on our website (www.epa.gov/glnpo)
so that information can be shared.
We recently awarded a cooperative agreement to the Great Lakes Commission in
Ann Arbor, Michigan to set up a Great Lakes coastal wetland consortium to
review indicators and implement a basinwide monitoring program. Because this
is a cooperative agreement and not a grant, we in GLNPO will be participating
in the consortium as full partners. This may require field work.
Second, we serve on the State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference
(SOLEC) steering committee. SOLEC is a biannual event organized and sponsored by
Environment Canada and GLNPO.
The purpose is to gather information about and
report on the state of the Great Lakes. We, with extensive partners, have
developed 79 indicators (status, stressor, and response) with which to
monitor the Great Lakes. The E Team has participated in organizing partners
to develop many of the indicators, as well as funding indicator protocol
testing.
Through SOLEC, we also invented Biodiversity Investment Areas (BIAs), areas of
high quality in the basin that need both protection and restoration. We've
mapped, written about and suggested actions based on our work.
Third, GLNPO is a small national program office comprised of about 45 staff
total. The Great Lakes is huge. We have only a few ways to get our work done.
First, we award grants so others can do great work, as I have already
mentioned. Second, we forge partnerships so that many different agencies and
groups are working towards the same goals. I personally serve as a board
member to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's
Upper Mississippi-Great Lakes Joint Venture and to the
Society for Ecological Restoration (SER). So, a good
part of our work is speaking at conferences, making periodic visits to
federal, state, and local agencies. Listening. Listening. Listening for what
is important, relevant, and emerging.
Fourth, we pass around what we learn. We connect people, put good ideas found
in final grant reports on our well-viewed web site (about one millions hits a
month), try to fund good work that will reach a large audience. And we pull
stuff together into journal articles or government reports or materials we
distribute widely.
Finally, we do a bit of education and outreach. For example, a Great Lakes
Biodiversity Software Program is about ready for distribution. I serve as the
chair of SER's Education and Training Workgroup where we are beginning to
develop education programs.
Tell us about where you work. How many people work in your office? What's the
atmosphere?
I work out of two offices. My regular USEPA office is in the Metcalfe Federal
Building in Chicago's Loop. It's a cubicle on the 17th floor of a 21-story
building. I do have a window and, in addition to a view of the building
across Clark Street, I have a peek at the southwest side. Being up 17 floors
has its advantages. I have a view of migrant birds and sometimes Monarch
butterflies in the spring and fall. Also of peregrine falcons who sometimes
swoop past me. Although this is a big building in the heart of Chicago, and
cubicles can be a bit noisy, this is by and large a congenial atmosphere to
work in. Our 45 person program office is housed in USEPA Region 5 offices,
although the Great Lakes basin also covers parts of USEPA Regions 2 and 3.
Region 5 personnel number about 1400 people. Also in the Metcalfe Building
are the Social Security office and Housing and Urban Development.
My second office is at home. Once or more a week I work at home according to
the "Flexiplace" program. It saves me commuter time. And I can concentrate on
writing, formulating plans, and catching up on paperwork without
interruption.
How much time do you spend in the office and in the field? What are some of
the most interesting things you have encountered in the field?
Although I don't do field work, I have been in the field to review grant
work. I have been hiking and canoeing on the north shore of Lake Superior,
seen bears in the Kakagon Sloughs of the Bad River Reservation, 550-year old
cedar trees Manitoulin Island alvars, and bog buckmoth habitat in wetlands
on the eastern shores of Lake Ontario. The Great Lakes basin is a marvelous
place to work and travel.
How important are computers to working in the field of ecological
restoration? Are there specialized programs?
Computers are important for several reasons these days. Internet access, for
me, keeps me in contact with both people and the latest in ecological
restoration science. It allows me to instantly communicate. Computers are
also necessary for storing large data bases and interpreting such data
quickly.
There are computer programs designed to help in the field of
ecological restoration. For example, in the Chicago region, Wilhelm and Masters
developed a plant database that is widely used. GIS maps developed by
federal and state agencies are important. Maps of Superfund sites in
Northwest Indiana, for example, are a help in identifying stressors to local
restoration activities. Information data bases of all sorts contribute to an
understanding of the area where restoration is to occur.
You work with issues such as water quality, invasive species, and ecological
health. These are huge issues in the Great Lakes region. How heavy is this
responsibility and do you feel a sense of urgency to accomplish your
environmental mission?
My responsibilities and those of the E Team are heavy ones indeed, but
fortunately, shared among many other partners. There is always a sense of
urgency, however, because political climates change and because pressures on
natural resources in this region are great. We do what we can with the
resources we have.
How do you communicate the importance of your work to the public?
This is difficult because of the diversity within the Great Lakes. We use
Internet, publish journal articles, contribute to newspaper or radio and
television items, publish and distribute educational brochures and fact
sheets, speak at conferences or to a diversity of audiences, answer telephone
and e-mail questions. It is never enough. There is never enough time.
EDUCATION INFORMATION & ADVICE
What is your degree in? What did you like and dislike about your
environmental education?
I received an Associate degree in Visual Communications from
Madison Area Technical College
in Madison, Wisconsin in 1981. I received a BS in
Anthropology from
Northeastern Illinois University
in Chicago in 1989 and an MA in Geography and Environmental Studies
from the same university in 1995. I was a returning adult student and working full time and a single mother. The
choices that I made as to schools and programs and courses were my own and I was
by and large happy.
Did your education prepare you for what you actually do now? If not, could
you have done anything differently?
My education combined with two past careers prepared me for my present job.
In my last career, I was a senior account executive for an audio visual
company. In other words, a sales person. Sales experience is always helpful
when trying to sell difficult ideas like ecological restoration to a
skeptical public. My first career was as a behavior manager working with
mentally disabled adults in an institution setting. I learned patience and
how to deal with difficult people, again, always helpful in any positions
where dealing with people is important.
What factors did you consider when choosing a program?
I chose programs that appealed to me. I wanted something interesting,
challenging, helpful. And I got it.
What advice can you give to prospective students thinking about an education
and career in ecological restoration?
Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer. This is the best way to network, to learn
about restoration techniques, even to become an expert in something long
before the education or career. The people who currently staff the major
agencies and environmental groups in the Chicago area were volunteers first,
changing careers in mid-life like me, or young people who had the energy to
spend their free time doing something wonderful.
Does it make a difference in the industry to graduate from a prestigious
school?
What makes the most difference is attitude: creativity, leadership, the
ability to think through what is complex, vision.
Based on what you hear in the industry, what do you think are the most
respected programs for ecological restoration that really make a difference
to students who graduate from these schools?
Most university programs lack the integration needed to teach students to do
ecological restoration well. How do you put soil, biology, chemistry,
ecology, sociology, economics etc. into one 4-year program that will give the
proper background for the work that needs to be done? Hopefully, some of the
programs in development will overcome narrow academic structures to build
programs that are meaningful in the long run. Check the SER website for
information regarding new programs and also for updates on the now-being-organized New Academy,
soon to be developed in conjunction with my alma mater, Northeastern Illinois University.
JOB INFORMATION & ADVICE
What kinds of jobs are available in ecological restoration? What are some of
the job titles and responsibilities that graduating students might have?
In USEPA, there are no other jobs in ecological restoration but mine.
However, numerous other staff at USEPA have an interest in ecological
restoration. The wetlands and watersheds staff, for example, help to enforce
the wetlands 404 Act as well as the Clean Water Act. The pesticides experts
are aware of endangered species requirements. National Environmental Policy
Act staff review federal projects with an eye toward protecting natural
resources. There are two other USEPA national program offices:
Chesapeake Bay
and Gulf of Mexico, that resemble GLNPO. We are non-enforcement, so we can act
where our enforcement people cannot, primarily as USEPA officials who will
engage the public in information exchange and partnering to protect and restore.
What's the pay scale in the field for those just starting a career? How about
those at the senior level?
We are on the "GS" pay scale. Typically, a GS 7 starts at around $20,000 with
yearly cost of living increases and eligibility for a scale increase. A
master's degree can bring one into the agency at a GS 11 rate, or about
$40,000. Yearly merit increases can bring one to a GS 13 scale at about
$68,000. Supervisors, GS 14-15, make considerably more.
What are the best ways to find a job in ecological restoration?
Volunteer first. It gets you a good feel for what is required and helps you
develop a network of people in the field. Second, supplement volunteer work
with classes. These don't have to be university level. Sometimes local groups
sponsor inexpensive certificate programs. Third, look on the Society for
Ecological Restoration website. There's a job section that is updated
frequently. Fourth, contact all the major natural resource agencies plus not-for-profits
such as The Nature Conservancy or a local land trust and ask
about job openings. The jobs are there; it just takes persistence to find
something you want.
You've served on a great number of boards and committees, including State of
the Great Lakes Ecosystem Conference Steering Committee, Upper
Mississippi-Great Lakes Joint Venture, and the Chicago Wilderness Policy
Committee, to name only a few. Why do you do this and how is it important to
your job?
There are two reasons to serve as a board member or member of a committee.
First, it is a way to make sure the USEPA is represented in a partnership.
Second, as a board member, one can influence decisions made by the group.
Board members or representatives have an opportunity to formulate or
influence alternative actions or policies.
You're also a member of the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER). Do you
have any other memberships with professional organizations and how does this
help your career?
I am a board member for SER and also the SER Education and Training Workgroup
chair. This is my only professional membership, although other E Team members
are involved in other societies. For me, SER keeps me in touch with the
latest ecological restoration techniques and ideas from all over the world.
It is also a place where I can let people know about the wonderful ecological
restoration activities taking place in the Great Lakes. So, it's a two-way
street.
How is the job market right now in ecological restoration? How do you think
it will be in the next five years? 10 years?
There are jobs in the Great Lakes. They range from local land trust executive
director jobs with lands that need to be managed and restored to hands-on
restoration positions to agency policy making to urban sustainable
development positions with an ecological restoration component. The more we
show people how our present land and water use practices have affected the
natural areas, the more the understanding of the need for ecological
restoration.
Are there some common myths about working in environmental restoration?
There are several myths. One is that restorationists are pretending to be
godlike, attempting to restore to pre-European settlement conditions. No
ecological restorationist that I know has suggested dismantling Chicago.
Ecological restorationists have no wish to return to some point in the past
that is not attainable. The intent is to set goals for restoring a landscape
so that it functions and preserves biodiversity, among other things. Using
the past as a guideline only makes sense, since we need benchmarks to
establish goals in the first place.
A second myth is that we can restore a land or water area perfectly to what
it was and in a short period of time. To my knowledge, no one has yet
succeeded in restoring a fully functioning wetland that is as diverse and
complex as one that has not been degraded. We know ecological restoration is
not a good substitute for protection from degradation. We also know that, sometimes, there is
no other alternative because we are often too late to protect.
A third myth is that ecological restoration interferes with the natural order
of things. I guess I don't know of any place on earth that has not been
touched or manipulated by humans, so why are we concerned about management of
natural resources all of a sudden?
A fourth is that you will get rich eventually working in the field. You won't
get rich, however, being an ecological restorationist will enrich your life
in ways you never thought of before.
INDUSTRY TRENDS
What are some trends that you see in the field that might help prospective
students?
It is my feeling that, barring a political decision to avoid
such activities, ecological restoration activities and jobs will grow. The
highest growth areas will be: water related, non-indigenous species control,
and international assistance.
With regard to education, although there is a general lack of programs at the university level currently,
that is changing. I expect to see a greater emphasis on ecological
restoration in the future. Also, the Internet has become a major tool for ecological restorationists and I
expect its use will increase.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: For more information about the educational and career outlook for Ecology majors, click here.
| 
Karen Rodriguez is Team Leader for the Ecological Protection and Restoration with the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, 
