Deja Curtis Email & Phone Number

Washington DC-Baltimore Area

Providing communications support for climate-smart agriculture.

Arlington, Virginia, United States

Graduate Teaching Fellow for Introduction to Statistics in the Environmental Sciences, Data Analysis and Exploration, and Ecological Restoration Seminar. I host weekly office hours where I assist students' with course-related questions and grade their assignments.

New Haven, Connecticut, United States

Worked with the City of New Haven’s Engineering and Planning Department on the updating and expansion of their Reflective Heat Impact Ordinance. Our draft ordinance featured innovative heat management strategies that draw on the initiatives of other leading cities and current urban heat island scientific literature. It also incentivized solutions that.

New Haven, CT

• Planned and executed Black History Month Speaker Series that highlighted African-American leaders within the environmental field; speakers included John Francis, environmental activist and renowned Planetwalker, Alex.
• Participated in the recruitment of prospective students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), including Spelman College and Howard University
• Helped to plan and facilitate a two-part identity series for Yale School of the Environment students that focused on the navigation of self and group identity

Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida Area

• Performed propagation care, weeding, seasonal planning, and routine landscaping at the Florida Learning Garden
• Led educational garden demonstrations for school programs and public events throughout the garden that promoted sustainable gardening practices and water conservation
• Established a partnership with local non-profit Metropolitan Ministries; our weekly produce donations were used to feed more than 100 food-insecure families every day at the MiraclePlace dining room

Orlando, Florida

• Assisted in research regarding the synergistic coupling of microalgae and wastewater for advanced treatment and biofuel production
• Performed data analyses (pH, DO, etc.) and composed feed for self-aerating algae and sludge combination
• Conducted literary reviews on sunlight driven photocatalytic processes for harmful algal bloom control and algal toxins removal
• Student Team Leader for research conducted on sustainable 2D molybdenum disulfide sponge oil-water separators. The proposal reached Phase II of the EPA People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) Student Design Competition

Orlando, Florida

• Addressed students' concerns and questions regarding environmental engineering coursework
• Created and applied grading rubrics for every assignment that semester

Master'S Degree, Environmental Science

Bachelor'S Degree, Environmental Engineering

Activities and Societies: Wastewater Treatment Research Assistant. E-board member of student-ran organization IDEAS for UCF.