News and two photos from alumna Tracey Varvel

ETOX alumna Tracy Varvel (M.S., 2003) sent the following message and photos of her son.

I am still working for Ana-lab as the Assistant Manager of Quality Assurance. I began telecommuting in March due to my husband's promotion and our subsequent move to El Paso, TX. I must say, working out of your home takes some getting used to, but has some definite benefits.

On a personal note, our son is growing like a weed and talking up a storm. I have attached a a couple of recent photos of him. He will turn 2 this July.

I wish all of the presenters the best of luck.

News and a photo from alumnus Alvaro Alvarado

Janet Arey has been contacting ETOX alumni for messages to place in the program booklet of the annual student symposium. When the alumni send photos, I plan to post them on the blog. Below is a message and photo (above) received from Alvaro Alvarado (Ph.D., 1998).

I hope you are well. We are doing fine. During the past year we went backpacking in Yosemite. I've attached a picture from the trip. My seven year old daughter did great. She even carried her own backpack. After three nights in the backcountry, we get back to the car dead tired, and she says that she wants to do that again.

I continue to enjoy my work at the California Air Resources Board. I have a lot of projects, mostly having to do with environmental justice and health impacts associated with PM2.5. On one project, I am part of team, which includes modelers from NASA, that is assessing the health and climate change co-benefits of reducing black carbon worldwide. On another project, I am working on environmental justice issues as we implement California s climate change law (AB23). The law directs the ARB to consider the impacts of regulations on vulnerable communities already overburdened by environmental pollutants. I manage a contract that is developing an environmental justice screening method that will be used to implement AB32. The project s overall objective is to recommend a scientifically derived approach for integrating cumulative impact and risk from air pollution with measures of socioeconomic vulnerability. It s exciting work (to me anyway).