California State University, Los Angeles

Faculty Member, Technology

Lecturer // Environmental Science Graduate Program Advisor

College of Engineering, Computer Science and Teachnology

Thesis Title: Water Quality and Nutrient Fluxes for Coralville Reservoir, IA

About

My undergraduate degree is in Oceanology, with a focus on non-renewable marine resources, and marine pollution with my undergraduate research thesis in Biofacies of Recent Benthic Foraminifera in Bahia Concepción , B.C.S. México.

My graduate work focused on the water quality of a reservoir in an agriculturally intensive watershed in the Midwest. During this time, I also was responsible for the “Coralville Reservoir Water Quality Project” for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

During Spring 2010 I helped develop a pilot class in "Leadership Development" with the goal of improving the leadership skills of potential student leaders while getting them  involved in their school and local community.

During summer (09) I was responsible for teaching “Math 90”, & “Math 91” classes as part of the STEP (Summer Transition to Engineering Program) where a 87% improvement in my students college math level was achieved in 6 weeks. STEP for 2010 had a success rate of 96% for the initial 3 weeks, and 70% for the second 3 week period (College level algebra). For 2011 the pass rate was 100% for the first session and 94.4% for the second session. I am incredibly proud of all my students.

This has led to an interest in Engineering Education, especially for traditionally under represented minority (URM)students. Currently trying to determine the impact of our STEP program on URM retention and academic performance for the ECST college here at CSULA.

Some of the classes I have taught are: "Robotics”, “Cartoon Animation”, "Ethics for the Professional Engineers", "Introduction to Environmental Engineering", "Water Quality", "Environmental Contemporary Issues", “Environment, Society and Technology”,  "Economics for Engineers" and in Spring of 2010 a new class called Green Design, where students designed environmentally sustainable homes for low income families.

Other relevant activities are assisting in first and second year student advisement, and acting as the faculty adviser for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) student chapter, the Catholic Students Club, and the Engineers for a Sustainable World student chapter.

At present I am also the faculty adviser for the M.S. Environmental Science program for the incoming graduate students (all options) and graduate coordinator for the environmental engineering and science option. This also means that I am part of a team that are working on
restructuring the program so that our graduates have technical and marketable skills when they graduate.

Research adviser on M.S. projects for:
Impact of Septic Systems on Groundwater in Acton CA (ongoing)
Evaluation of the Restoration Plan for Malibu Lagoon (Graduated 2011)
Measuring fluoride levels in public drinking water (Graduated 2010)
Analysis of Storm Water Regulation in the Malibu Watershed (Graduated 2010)

Current research interests are:
Water quality
Nutrient runoff
TMDL's

Currently writing a book chapter on land use and water quality which is taking up almost all my spare time. If you are interested in joining a writing support group, the twitter hashtag is #sciwrite

I would like to expand my research into:
Sustainable development
Scarcity of water resources
The relationship between environmental quality and human health
Environmental Justice

Contact Information