The greenonions team
From left to right: April Price, Jocelyn Gretz, Brannon Walsh, Ashley Henderson, Mariah Mills, Seth Lalonde and Dr. James Frew.
Jocelyn Gretz
Jocelyn is studying Water Resource Managementand Conservation Planning at the Bren School. She is interested in pursuing a career that helps balance the economic and social needs of water with the in-stream flows needed to sustain aquatic ecosystems. She is especially interested in the topics of ecosystem services, regional planning and sustainable agriculture. She is excited to work with and learn from farmers on this project, including the economic, political and social aspects of their work.
Jocelyn majored in Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies at the e University of Wisconsin, Madison before her personal spirit of adventure sent her West. Jocelyn has spent the past eight years teaching students and adults about ecosystems in Yosemite National Park, the Chugach National Forest in Alaska and the San Francisco Bay Area. She recently managed the community-based wetland restoration and outings programs for Save The Bay, recruiting over 5,000 participants and helped establish relationships with major Bay Area corporations. During graduate school, Jocelyn conducted environmental flows research with U.S. Geological Survey taking field measurements and conducting watershed analysis through hydrologic modeling. She is also working with the Natural Resources Defence Council to assess the potential for Low Impact Development strategies to reduce the volume and pollution associated with urban runoff.
Ashley Henderson
Ashley is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Environmental Science and Management from the Bren School at USCB with a dual specialization in Water Resource Management and Corporate Environmental Management. As an undergraduate, she studied Environmental Science at Columbia University. She later received a Masters degree in Psychology and worked in the mental health field for several years before returning to her first love, environmental science. Having grown up in the chillier Northeast, Ashley is very much enjoying the Santa Barbara climate and the beautiful scenery. Ashley is interested in sustainable agriculture, among other things, and is excited to be working with Gills Onions.
Seth Lalonde
Seth grew up in the small town of Fort QuAppelle, Saskatchewan Canada. He developed an appreciation for nature living near a chain of lakes in a beautiful glacier-carved valley, which provided opportunities for canoeing, hiking, skating and skiing. Seth has been fortunate to live in other beautiful valley regions including Ottawa, the Bay Area, and British Columbia. His personal connection to the natural environment motivated him to pursue graduate degree at the Bren School.
Seth obtained a B.S. in Computer Science at the University of Regina and has worked for fifteen years in the data networking field as a software quality assurance analyst and manager. He has acquired a breadth of dynamic work experience working with large high-tech firms such as Nortel Networks, Cisco Systems and smaller startup companies such as Calient Networks, Itiva Media Corp., and Zoove Corp. Seth is excited to embark on a new career path and after studying at Bren School, plans to pursue an environmental consulting career in the areas of conservation planning, sustainable agriculture, and water resources management. He is thrilled to be gaining applied experience in these areas as part of our group project for Gills Onions.
Mariah Mills
Mariah Mills is pursuing a Master’s degree of Environmental Science & Management at UCSB with an emphasis in Corporate Environmental Management. As an undergraduate, she attended the University of San Diego where she received a Bachelors of Arts in Environmental Studies with concentrations in Biology and International Relations. After college, she held several seasonal positions- as a Student Conservation Association intern in Yellowstone National Park, a GIS research assistant in San Diego and a field assistant at a sea turtle conservation project in Costa Rica. She then joined the 9 to 5 world, working as an Environmental Scientist for the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board in the Clean Water Act Section 401 Water Quality Certification unit. Prior to returning to graduate school at Bren, she took time off to attend a permaculture design certification course in Sonoma County and to travel, surf and study permaculture in Costa Rica and Panama.
April Price
April is studying environmental economics and policy at the Bren School. She grew up in Pasadena, CA and attended UC Santa Cruz as a biology major. April worked in outdoor education for the last three years, teaching children about redwood ecology and teambuilding. April enjoys hiking and biking around her new home of Santa Barbara. She is excited that this onion project has so many layers!
Brannon Walsh
Originally from Virginia, Brannon received his undergraduate education at Old Dominion University where he earned a B.S. in Biology with an Ecology focus and a minor in Chemistry. After graduating, he worked as water quality technician for the Chesapeake Bay Program and also volunteered with the AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Project in Northern California. Most recently, he was employed by the Siskiyou Resource Conservation District in Scott Valley, California where he worked on river restoration projects and assisted the local agricultural community with Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act compliance. Here at the Bren School, Brannon is focusing on Pollution Prevention and Remediation and is interested in how land-use change impacts water quality.
Project Advisor
James Frew
Associate Professor - Environmental Informatics
PhD, MA, BA, Geography, UC Santa Barbara
James Frew's research interests lie in the emerging field of environmental informatics, a synthesis of computer, information, and Earth sciences. He is interested in information architectures that improve the discoverability, usability, and reliability of distributed environmental information. Trained as a geographer, he has worked in remote sensing, image processing, software architecture, massive distributed data systems, and digital libraries. His current research is focused on geospatial information provenance, discovery, and curation, using remote sensing data products generated by his Environmental Information Laboratory as operational test beds. He has affiliate appointments in UCSB's Geography and Computer Science departments.
Project Links
- Bren School of Environmental Science & Management
- Gill's Onions
- Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops
Site Links