Former California Sea Grant State Fellow Now Working for Cross-Border Conservation
Y. Meriah Arias earned a doctorate degree in marine biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 2002. Her dissertation examined the ability of certain bacteria in ocean sediments to detoxify the heavy metal chromium.
In 2002, California Sea Grant awarded her a California Sea Grant State Fellowship at the California Environmental Protection Agency in Sacramento. As a fellow, Arias helped craft a multi-agency strategic plan for managing watersheds in the state. Largely on her own initiative, she also found opportunities to stoke a dormant passion – working with under-served people in Baja California, Mexico.
Meriah Arias was a Sea Grant Trainee while a graduate student in marine biology at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She went on to become a California Sea Grant State Fellow at CalEPA. Photo Credit: Christina S. Johnson, California Sea Grant. (left)
During her year in Sacramento, she co-wrote and taught a course on hazardous waste to "first responders," lab technicians and resource managers in the border cities of Mexicali and Tijuana and launched a "hands across the border" program in which American expertise in treating wastewater and distributing potable water was shared with colleagues in Mexico.
"I always wanted to work with border issues but never knew how," said Arias, a Mexican American who grew up in southern Texas and is fluent in Spanish. Having the chance to work on real-world cross-border projects solidified her decision to leave academic science to pursue a career path that combines her philanthropic instinct, language and science skills.
And, she is currently doing just this as a Baja California Environmental Careers Organization Fellow at the International Community Foundation, a San Diego-based non-profit that distributes charitable donations to communities throughout the Americas and Asia.
ICF Logo - The International Community Foundation in San Diego guides donors interested in supporting programs that assist underrepresented people in the Americas and Asia. It also works to engage immigrants in transnational philanthropic endeavors. For more information, visit the foundation’s website at www.icfdn.org. Image courtesy of the International Community Foundation.
She began her fellowship in February 2004 and is currently learning how to identify areas of high conservation priority on the Baja California coast. Identifying these areas has become urgently important because of Mexico's recent decision to approve the construction of a network of marinas, "a nautical stairway," to woo American tourist dollars to the region. The information she is gathering eventually will be turned into a set of recommendations for donors interested in supporting marine conservation on the peninsula.
As a fellow at the International Community Foundation, Meriah Arias is assisting in efforts to conserve coastal wilderness areas, such as the one pictured above, in southern Baja California, Mexico. Photo Credit: Meriah Arias. (above)
Southern Baja California coastal mountains. Photo Credit: Meriah Arias. (above)
"The state fellowship changed my career path because I really wanted to use my Spanish and my science, " Arias, 33, said. "To combine them is fantastic."
With her fellowship ending in late in 2004, she has begun looking for a new job, preferably one in San Diego that will allow her to continue to use her Spanish and science.
Islands in the Sea of Cortez, Photo Credit: Meriah Arias. (above)
Her advice to prospective fellows: "If you are a person interested in working in science but not in academia, and you are interested in policy or how policies are made, you should definitely apply. It was a fantastic opportunity for me."
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