• Water Environment Federation (WEF)
• International Association on Water Quality (IAWQ)
• Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP)
• American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE)
• American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
• Engineers Without Borders (EWB)

National and International


• Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP). Board of Directors, Summer 2006 to 2009. Treasurer 2007 to 2009. Co-chair for 2013 AEESP Research and Education Conference, Golden, CO.
  
  
• American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Environmental Engineering Division. Board (sequentialy treasurer, secretary, program chair, division chair for 1 yr each; director 2 yrs). Summer 2006 to present.
• ASEE, Community Engagement in Engineering Education Constitutent Committee. Chair Elect 2011-2012.
  
  
• Science Adviser for the NewsHour. 2007-present. Link to interesting story on the gender gap in engineering and science.
  
  
• Reviews in Environmental Science and Biotechnology, Editorial Board, 2009 – present. Springer Netherlands, ISSN 1569-1705 (print) and 1572-9826 (online).
• American Academy of Environmental Engineers (AAEE), editorial board for Environmental Engineer magazine. Sept. 2006 to present.
• International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering: Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship, Editorial Board, 2011 - present.
• Water Environment Federation, program committe Oct. 1998 - Oct. 2002).
  
  University
• ABET assessment coordinator for Dept. of Civil, Environmental, & Arch. Engineering (2008 to present) and Environmental Engineering Program (Fall 2006 to summer 2010).
• Curriculum committee, Dept. of Civil, Environmental, & Arch. Engineering. Fall 2000 to Summer 2005, Fall 2008 to present.
  Chair Fall 2003 to summer 2005, Fall 2011 to present.
• Faculty co-mentor for the Engineers Without Borders (EWB) CU student chapter. Summer 2003 to Summer 2005.
• Freshman advisor, Dept. of Civil, Environmental, & Arch. Engineering. Spring 1999 to Fall 2002.
• Operations committee, Dept. of Civil, Environmental, & Arch. Engineering. Fall 2001 to Summer 2002.
• On the Bioengineering Committee (1998-1999, 2002-2005), Undergraduate Education Council (Fall 2003 to Spring 2005; Fall 2006 to Summer 2010), Assessment Committee (Spring 2008 to present), Scholarship Committee (Spring 2007 to Summer 2010), Engineering Planning and Policy committee (Aug. 1998 to 2002), First Year Task Force (Spring 2010), and the Strategic Futures Council (Spring 1999 to 2000) for the College of Engineering.
• Member of the Women in Engineering Program faculty advisory board (Fall 1997 to Spring 2005)
• Faculty in the Environmental Engineering Program, a new undergraduate degree starting at CU in Fall 1998
• Demonstrations for: high school Career Day through Women in Engineering Program (WIEP), WIEP Energy Workshop for Middle School Girls, Expanding Your Horizons for junior high girls sponsored by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), High School Success Institute for Minority Students

• CVEN 5514: Bioremediation
  Fall 1996, 2002; Spring 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2012
  A graduate-level course covering current in-situ and ex-situ methods for bioremediation of contaminated sites. New course developed.
• CVEN 4474/5474: Hazardous and Industrial Waste Management
  Summer 2013 online; Spring 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007; Fall 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
  A senior-level undergraduate/graduate course covering regulations, risk assessment, and treatment processes.
• CVEN 4434: Environmental Engineering Design
  Fall 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006; Spring 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
  The capstone for senior undergraduate students; a real-world project (such as WW tmt plant upgrade; sustainable drinking water treatment in a developing country) is followed from proposal to design.
• CVEN 5544: Solid Waste Management
  May 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003
  Graduate course covering solid waste generation, collection, recycling, and "treatment" by incineration, composting, and landfilling.
• CVEN 1317: Introduction to Civil Engineering
  Fall 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011; Spring 1999
  Overview course for Freshman students. Includes ethics, sustainability, societal impacts of engineering, team bridge modeling, etc.
• AREN 1316: Introduction to Architectural Engineering
  Fall 2012
  Overview course for Freshmen students. Taught combined with CVEN 1317.
• CVEN 3414: Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering
  Fall 2004
  Overview of chemistry, ecology, microbiology, mass balance fundamentals; air pollution, water/wastewater treatment, hazardous waste, solid waste.
• EVEN 1000: Introduction to Environmental Engineering
  Fall 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
  Overview course for Freshman students. Includes ethics, sustainability, team project, etc.
• GEEN 1500: Introduction to Engineering
  Fall 2011, Fall 2012
  Civil Engineering modules. Introducing first-year students to engineering.
  

My current passion is working to improve the education of engineering students. This includes conducting rigorous assessment of my own teaching, assessment of program-wide student learning outcomes, and research on engineering education. My research explores students' developing identity with engineering and attitudes about engineering. I am particularly passionate about infusing sustainability throughout engineering courses. At present, all of my courses include discussions, modules, and/or assignments that focus on sustainability. I want to ensure that future engineering professionals work to ensure a sustainable future for our planet. I believe that problem-based learning and open-ended problems foster systems-thinking, creativity, and real-world skills.

I am also working with other faculty to promote Engineering for Developing Communities (EDC) at the University of Colorado. We are committed to educating globally responsible students and professionals who can offer sustainable and appropriate technology solutions to the endemic problems faced by developing communities at local, national and global levels. Toward accomplishing this goal, several of the projects in the capstone design course that I teach are service-learning oriented. I am also working with Scott Summers and a number of students to research the water treatment effectiveness of point-of-use ceramic water filters for in-home drinking water treatment.

I particularly enjoy mentoring undergraduates and high school students in laboratory research. This interest began as a result of my own research experience with Dr. Audrey Levine and her master’s student Anne Spiesman at Iowa State University (ISU) just after my junior year of high school. That summer my love of environmental engineering was born. I continued working in the research laboratories in Environmental Engineering throughout my senior year of high school and 4 years as an undergraduate at ISU. Doing research made the coursework more interesting, and kept me motivated. Since I’d been in the lab longer than most graduate students (5 yrs total) I soon was able to help train other students and "co-mentor" other undergraduates with my major professor.

While a graduate student getting my masters and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Washington, I was privileged to have a number of undergraduate work-study students and students earning independent study credits working with me. It was always more fun to do research as part of a team. Everyone always had a unique perspective that contributed to the research. I was happy to see that many of these students went on to obtain advanced degrees in Environmental Engineering.

Here at the University of Colorado, I continue to enjoy working with students at all levels through research. I am always glad to mentor a special topics or independent study project for any student interested in getting involved in the lab. Working with bacteria is a particularly challenging area of research (after all, these are living organisms!!). I look forward to many years of collaborative research efforts with students!