USI environmental science graduate deployed as EPA emergency response to East Palestine train derailment
Sydra Parker graduated from the University of Southern Indiana Environmental Science program in 2021. Now, she works as an environmental scientist for Tetra Tech, a global consulting and engineering firm that was contracted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as an emergency response to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
As part of her response efforts, Parker collected the data needed to assess environmental conditions and monitor public health threats. Air monitoring equipment helped assess the area around the perimeter of the exclusion zone and surrounding residential areas, focusing on those areas downwind of the plume.
The native of Pendleton, Indiana, also collected surface water samples, beginning south of the site at the Ohio River. As she worked her way north, she observed that the visible contamination on the water surface was more apparent the closer they got to the site. Under the order of the EPA, more than 700 tons of contaminated soil and two million gallons of liquid have been collected from the derailment site.
During Parker’s time at USI, she worked as a Research Assistant with Dr. Paul Doss, Professor of Geology, documenting, sampling and quantifying the presence of microplastic contamination in Reflection Lake, located on USI’s campus. “Having a research advisor who always held me accountable to do my best work during every stage of our research project opened my eyes to what I am capable of and gave me the confidence and motivation to keep being my best and to pursue a career in which I could really make a difference,” says Parker. “I wouldn’t change a thing about my experience doing research with Dr. Doss because I really believe it was exactly what I needed to push me in the right direction."
“I believe the success of former students is the single most robust measure of the effectiveness of research and teaching at a primarily undergraduate institution. Sydra Parker embodies that measure,” says Doss. “We tackled a timely, important, and societally relevant investigation of an insidious environmental contaminant on our campus. Now, she is working successfully on behalf of environmental quality and public health applying the concepts, methods, and approaches we learned and nurtured while Sydra was a student at USI.”
Parker agrees that the important work she’s doing today related to an environmental disaster that hit so close to home for those in the Tri-state is a direct result of the education she received at USI. "I think the main qualities that got me where I am are persistence and passion for the work that I do," she says. “Working on our research together [alongside Doss] certainly helped me develop both of those things and definitely got me excited about the future of environmental work.”