Values are what guide you in your life and work. What values are important to you and how have they influenced you?

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area amid consistent drought, fire, and smoke, I regularly took notice of the changing environment around me. From a young age, I learned the benefits of community water conservation techniques such as “power showers” of less than five minutes and rules for toilet flushing (that often seemed to break learned etiquette). My family followed “Spare the Air” days by not lighting fires through much of the winter to avoid contributing to poor air quality with added particulate matter. I grew up acutely aware of climate change and grew to value the impacts that a community could have on addressing the problems together. Reflecting on my activities and interests, I see the impact that regular encounters with weather extremes have had on my priorities. My professional and personal actions seek to improve the world around me and generate a more sustainable future. The protection I provide to the environmental through my actions drives me and leads me to opportunities where I can create change. These environmental values consistently direct my actions at work as a natural gas pipeline engineer. When I first started working in the natural gas industry, I worried about my involvement in a system so heavily reliant on fossil fuels and struggled with the impact that my work had on carbon emissions. However, I quickly recognized the power I have to eliminate methane emissions from many hundreds of miles of leaking pipelines. To cease these fugitive emissions, I first worked as a planning engineer designing replacement projects before moving to asset management where I determine pipeline risk for replacement prioritization. Even as a pipeline engineer transporting carbon products, I have left my mark on the environment through decreased emissions and sustainable operations. I also devote much of my free time to bettering the world around me. After seeing increased wear on the trails of the Appalachian Mountains foothills in New Jersey during the pandemic, I stopped hiking just for fun. Now, I wield a pair of garden shears and a folding saw, maintaining a stretch of trail to provide clear direction forward and remain free from overgrowth regardless of the forces that hikers and extreme weather leave on the trails. I also volunteer with a crew constructing new trails that will fare better than the existing trails against the regular attendance and the forces of weather. Even while enjoying the outdoors, I find means of planning a more sustainable future. My impact on the environment and world around me functions as the driving value in my life. My environmental influence informs each of my decisions, both personal and professional, and will continue to serve as the basis of my work and activities moving forward.