| UC Toxics News: Fall 2006
"I've always been an environmentalist," says former TSR&TP trainee Y. Meriah Arias-Thode. "It started in second grade. I attended a special class that focused on the environment. The school cafeteria had a little garden where we grew plants. We would also recycle newspapers. Instead of having cake sales, we had plant sales. Instead of writing the usual cursive sentences, we'd write 'I will not be a litterbug.'" The Houston, Texas native joined the US Army Reserves after high school and was activated to Germany during Desert Storm I to work in a medical lab detecting wound bacteria and advising doctors on antibiotic therapy. Her affinity led to the position of primary microbiologist at the age of 19 as none of the other lab techs "liked microbiology". "I find it really fascinating how life can exist on such a nanoscale," she explains. "If you look at a drop of lake water under a microscope, all the activity and organisms you see are fascinating. I became interested in how they interact and how they survive." When her active military duty ended, Arias-Thode returned to school for a degree in biology from the University of Texas at San Antonio. While browsing at an undergraduate research conference, a Scripps Institution of Oceanography opportunity caught her eye. Arias-Thode applied for the fellowship and spent the summer before her senior year in Brad Tebo's lab at Scripps studying manganese oxidation and its effects on organic dyes. "I really enjoyed it," says Arias-Thode. "I liked the project, the lab, and the work. I wanted to do that work. I thought it was important." She was accepted to the Marine Microbiology doctoral program at UC San Diego and began working in Tebo's lab the following year. Early in her graduate education, Arias-Thode met Russ Flegal, an Environmental Toxicology professor at UC Santa Cruz, and his postdoctoral researcher Ignacio Rivera-Duarte at a TSR&TP symposium. Flegal's research on heavy metals was a good fit, and Arias-Thode sought his advice; he eventually became one of her thesis advisors. Rivera-Duarte moved to San Diego for a senior scientist position at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) and would visit the Tebo lab when Flegal was in town. Arias-Thode got to know him and this relationship blossomed into an Office of Naval Research grant to look at chromium contamination on Mare Island Naval Shipyard. The group studied the reduction and detoxification of chromium 6 to chromium 3 by bacteria in marine sediments. Arias-Thode earned her doctoral degree in 2002 and promptly applied for a Sea Grant fellowship. She received one of only two fellowships awarded that year. "They were looking for people who had a larger perspective," she explains. "The TSR&TP provided that experience for me. I was able to discuss how I had interacted with other disciplines." For her 10 month fellowship, Arias-Thode served at the California Environmental Protection Agency right under two assistants to Secretary Winston Hickox. She worked with water programs and border affairs, helping to write a strategic plan for California watersheds, the first comprehensive plan for the state. She also helped with an exchange of ideas between California, Tecate and Mexicali on water and waste issues, specifically on strategies for wastewater management under the pressures of a rapidly increasing population. When the fellowship ended, Arias-Thode returned to San Diego in search of work. "There was a non-profit that had advertised for a person who knew a lot about coastal issues and spoke Spanish. Because of TSR&TP connections and the work I did in Mexico, I was a good fit." In late 2003 she began working with ICF, the International Community Foundation, a nonprofit focused on conservation, health and education. Shortly afterward, the Sea of Cortez Expedition and Education Project, a re-creation of John Steinbeck's 1940 expedition, contacted ICF with a request to develop an educational component. They identified Arias-Thode for the job. She joined the expedition for 5 weeks from the tip of Southern Baja to the entire Gulf of Mexico. Arias-Thode served as a marine biologist and worked with other non-profits involved in Mexican schools and children's education, talking with local people and fishermen at every stop. Arias-Thode's other work with ICF included a needs assessment for local communities including health, education, environment, social services and economic development. Arias-Thode focused on the environment and her efforts helped produce the ICF publication: Baja California Sur's Community-Based Opportunities and Needs. She interviewed presidents of 25 of the ejidos - landholding peasant communities composed of individual parcels and common lands. Recent changes in Mexican law have allowed ejidos to be sold, creating new challenges for the communities. Many areas are being sold to developers rapidly changing the face of Baja. "Most of the people in Baja are interested in conservation, but it's also an economic issue," says Arias-Thode. "A lot of people are really poor, the poorest of the poor. But I have faith they want to preserve." In early 2005, Arias-Thode was activated in the Army Reserves to a unit in Atlanta, Georgia working with the Centers for Disease Control and the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center. "I was looking at potential contamination issues of concern at military sites that might impact our troops," she explains. With Ignacio Rivera-Duarte's encouragement, Arias-Thode
applied for a position at SPAWAR in San Diego and was hired as a microbiologist
in November 2005. She is now working on pollutant source tracking and
microbial degradation of metals and organics. "I like the group
of people here. I think this is it for me," says Arias-Thode. "The
TSR&TP has provided me with invaluable connections that I have been
able to draw on over the years of my education and beyond." |
