ALICE BEITTEL

Alice began her journey with Turning Green as a PGC 2013 Finalist during her junior year in high school. Since then, her passion for environmental science led her to graduate from the University of California, Davis with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and Management and a minor in Geographic Information Systems. As an outdoor and science enthusiast, Alice pursued a wide range of ecology research projects; from studying coral reef fish grazing behavior at the Monteverde Institute in Costa Rica to the ecological impacts of regulated river flows by hydropower dams in Utah and Colorado’s Dinosaur National Monument. With a growing academic focus in freshwater systems, Alice found herself living in rural northern Mongolia as an Ecology Research Assistant for the Mongolian American Aquatic Ecology Research Initiative where she assisted in social-ecological research investigating the impacts of hydropower development on river ecosystems and humans. During the academic year and summer breaks, she worked for two years as a Research Assistant at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, where she studied beaver dam analogue meadow restoration techniques in the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges. She served as Chair of the UC Davis student government’s Environmental Policy and Planning Commission and was the varsity coxswain for the UC Davis Women’s Rowing Team. Today, she serves as a Junior Officer in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Commissioned Officer Corps on the hydrographic research vessel, NOAA Ship Rainier. Alice is thrilled to return to Turning Green as a PGC 2020 Ambassador as PGC was the very experience that ignited her passion and confidence to pursue environmental science seven years ago.