>> How I got started with the National Research
Council is closely tied to my work at UCI.
So as a student at the University
of California Irvine,
I interacted with a lot of
departments on campus.
My primary department was social ecology
and the work that I was doing in the field
of social ecology was directly
related to climate change issues
and the field of earth system science.
So during my time here I was able to take
courses in different departments across campus
and that included courses with some climate
change scientists and after I graduated
from here with my PhD where I looked at climate
change issues from the social sciences side,
I let some of my colleagues here know
that I would be out in Washington, D.C.,
looking for work and they recommended me to
a position at the National Research Council
and everything went well from there.
I attended the University of California Irvine
for both my undergraduate and graduate degrees.
So I have an undergraduate degree in
history with the department of humanities
and then my PhD is in social ecology with the
school of social ecology here at UC Irvine.
So, deciding on my majors and
the field of study was not easy,
but first and foremost I love learning and I
love stories and I love learning about people.
So, as an undergraduate, history
seemed to be a natural fit.
As an undergraduate, I also had to take, one of
the requirements was to take a science course.
So I took the science course and it
was in earth system science and through
that course I became enamored with environmental
issues and the earth and the science
of understanding the atmosphere and
the geosphere and the hydrosphere.
So, what I wanted to do for graduate
school was to combine my interests sort
of in the humanity side of things and
also the social sciences with some
of these different sciences or system sciences.
So I was able to put the two of those
together for my work in the graduate program.
I did not have any internships during college.
I did have, for one summer
I worked with the University
of California Irvine's Undergraduate Research
Opportunities Program where I got a stipend
to pursue some independent research
over the summer and what I studied
as a history major is I looked at Joan of Arc.
After I completed my undergraduate degree
I actually rolled into the PhD program here
at the University of California Irvine.
So I went straight from undergraduate
to graduate school but prior
to completing my undergraduate degree I had
several years' experience in different sectors.