Alumni Profile
a concern for people and the air they breathe


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Ann Wawrukiewicz has found her ideal job—one that puts her desire
to help people together with her fascination with indoor air quality. As indoor air program coordinator for Region 10 of the US Environmental Protection Agency, she answers questions from the public about mold, asthma, carbon monoxide, and volatile organic compounds.
   She works with schools to assess and improve their indoor air quality, and organizes workshops for the community. “I have always found indoor air quality just plain interesting,” she says. The public contact and fieldwork allow her to see the direct results of her work. The EPA’s indoor air program is a nonregulatory outreach and education program. Ann’s territory extends through Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska.
   Ann first became involved with EPA as a part-time volunteer intern during the summer between her first and second years in the Technology graduate program. She spent some of her time with the indoor air program and found that “I liked the subject from the start.” She was hired into an EPA enforcement job after graduation, but kept her interest in indoor air. Last year, her current job opened and “it was really a perfect fit.”
   Her UW coursework provided a good general background in the health effects of indoor and outdoor air pollution. She regularly uses the skills she learned in exposure assessment and risk assessment courses when she needs to evaluate someone’s potential indoor exposures. Information from her industrial hygiene classes helps her “immeasurably” in the field. She feels the strong general knowledge she gained in the program makes it easier to “distill out the key points of the subjects into language a nonscientist can understand.”
   The most important thing she learned in graduate school was critical thinking. “In my job, so much information passes by my desk, and a lot of it comes from people who have a product to sell. It’s really important for me to look behind that and figure out if this is something that will help people or make their air quality worse.” Her professors in Environmental Health emphasized taking an analytical and critical approach to articles and information, “and it serves me really well today.”
   She took a broad range of classes, including those in her Technology major and Industrial Hygiene and Safety, plus public affairs and environmental law courses outside the Department. The range of classes, combined with a practical thesis project, gave her a broad base of knowledge and experience. “This approach isn’t for everyone, but I’m really glad I took advantage of the variety.”
From her position inside a federal agency, Ann considers DEH graduates to be solid candidates for entry-level positions. She also sees them moving easily into indoor air quality jobs at state and county health departments, and nonprofit agencies such as the American Lung Association.