A Little (!) About Myself...
I was born and brought up in the wonderful island nation of Trinidad and Tobago until I decided that I wanted to pursue my University career in the United States at age 16. In Trinidad, I attended first Maria Regina Grade School, then the College of the Immaculate Conception (affectionately known as CIC, St. Mary's, or Saints). I completed the CXC and O'Level examinations in 9 subject areas, and then decided to take the SATs. That sealed my fate to go to the US for my higher education.
So, with some people saying good luck, and some saying it was a mistake, I embarked on my University experience at the University of Miami, in Coral Gables, Florida (a suburb of Miami). Of course, Hurricane Andrew followed too, and I found that the best way to cope with the disaster was to get involved, and that I did enthusiastically. It helped me to establish myself in Miami and at UM. There, the experiences of an internationally flavored community were extremely rewarding, especially when I became involved with the Trinidad and Tobago Cultural Association (TTCA) and the Council Of International Students and Organizations (COISO). In my senior year, I became President of COISO, and had one of the best years of my life! It was wonderful to work with students, faculty and administration at all levels, and to bring them together or many different events, such as United Nations Day and International Week. I-Week is a festival that celebrates the cultures of more than 100 countries at the University of Miami in food, music, dance, craft, art etc. It is a 10 day long party for the entire community hosted by COISO on behalf of the international students.
In May 1996, I graduated from the University of Miami, and unjoyfully but willingly left the wonderful city of Miami for Chapel Hill, North Carolina to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While there, I pursued my Master of Science (MS) degree in Environmental Geology, ending in a specialty of Water Resource Development, in the Department of Geology. I defended my thesis in July 1998, and returned to Miami and UM for my MBA.
My project for my MS degree dealt with ground water resource development in central North Carolina. There is a problem with drilling wells for large quantities of water in that it is difficult to guarantee that a specific amount of water will be yielded by a well. So, I am attempted to quantify this problem and hopefully come up with a method of more accurately predicting what a given yield would be if a well(s) is (are) drilled in a particular location, etc. Overall, the project was extremely successful, and in practically all aspects, there was a large improvement in the predicability of a location for high yield wells, in some instances, by as much as a factor of 12! I presented my work at the 1998 GSA Annual Meeting in Toronto, Canada, where it was selected for special media attention. I obtained excellent feedback and inquires about the research at the meeting. Since that time, I assisted my advisor, Dr. Charles C. Daniel, III with a spin-off of the research that looked specifically at commercial-sized wells, which met with great success, and confirmed our previous findings. This work was presented at the 1999 SouthEast GSA Annual Meeting in Athens, Georgia, and presented the the North Carolina Department of Health and Natural Resources, and Orange County (NC) officials. Dr. Daniel and I were able to have had the research published in professional journals.
My time at UNC was not without student involvement either. During the first two weeks of school in the Fall of 1998, I was appointed to the Graduate Advisory Committee by the department, and served for the two years I attended UNC. It was one of the best committees I have ever been on, and had a great feeling of accomplishment. We were able to affect many beneficial changes in UNC Policy for graduate students, including the retraining of undergraduate honor court officers, and improving the treatment and recognition of graduate students. Also in the Fall of 1998, I reorganized and was elected President of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Geological Society (UNC-CH GS). The Geological Society (sometimes playfully called PIGS - People In GeoScience) was a lot of fun to run...we decided what social and academic events. We wanted, and found a way to pay for them ourselves. We had happy hours, picnics, field-trips, receptions, and an annual formal.
True to my addiction to student involvement, I returned to the University of Miami as a very active graduate student. I ran for and was elected as the Treasurer of the Graduate Student Association, as well as Son-of-Chief for Iron Arrow Honor Society. I also ended up being Chairperson for COISO's 1999 International Week celebrations. Thus, 1998-1999 was a more than active year for me, and I still somehow managed to maintain a decent GPA! My MBA was be a triplet of specializations that I think will be beneficial to me in my field (with the view that I want to eventually work with the World Bank on water projects). Namely, these were Human Resource Management, Leadership, and International Relations. Though exhausting, the year was terrific. With the other officers, GSA had its most active and productive year in more than a decade. Iron Arrow witnessed a growth spurt in its membership,and was brought into the electronic age. I helped setup a new email distribution list, and secured and built the Tribe's website. From what I am told, International Week 1999 was a success, and many folks agree that the banquet was one of the best ever. As if that wasn't enough, I ran for and was elected as President of GSA, and Chief of Iron Arrow for the 1999-2000 term. I vowed after those two elections that I would not take on any further obligations (other than school, of course!).
In the Fall of 1999, my sister started at UM too, and as much as I had looked forward to her being here with me (and my parents dreading the empty nest they had at home, or so they say!), especially since we did not grow up together (I left home when she was 10), I could not have been happier that she came to UM. We had a LOT to learn about each other!
When I graduated from UM in 2001, I was lucky enough to already have a job to be going to. I was getting worried during 2000-2001, because none of the employers who were coming to UM's Career Fairs were interested in hiring someone with my educational background, even the engineering companies. In the Fall of 2000, I was so frustrated with the responses I was getting that I walked up to the Professional Service Industries booth and bluntly told the representative that I only needed an answer if they were hiring geoscientists, like their banners advertised. He said "not really" and I cut him off and turned to leave, saying "That's what I thought!" I must have made some kind of an impression, because he called me back to have a serious conversation about what I was doing and where I was headed with my career goals. After a good conversation, I left feeling better, because at least someone had taken me seriously. Oddly enough, we also ran into each other at the airport as he was returning to Orlando and I was headed to the NAGPS conference in Nashville. We had a great conversation on the plane. Needless to say, three days later I got a call from PSI's corporate offices - it was the HR person for the region who told me that apparently I had made a good impression on the person I spoke with, because he was really fired up about getting me on board with PSI and wanted to have a formal interview in a few days at the local PSI office. Not only this, but I was informed that the person I had been talking to was the Executive Vice President of PSI!! Well the interview did not happen because of the famous "no-name storm" that flooded Miami, and about a week later I had my interview during the regular UM interview times. My interview was cut short, with the words "I don't like to waste time with interviews - I know very soon into one if I'll hire someone or not." Panic set in momentarily, and I was told that it was not a good use of time for me to continue, since I was going to be hired. What a relief! Mickey Barrett had me doing recruiting for PSI before I was even hired, during the Spring career fair. I began at the PSI Miami offices in July 2001 and was happy there for a long time. I was able to obtain quite a lot of certifications and experience, and my expertise was vastly accelerated by the early departure of my mentor two months after I started working.
After four years at PSI, I was made an offer by my old mentor's company, Nova Consulting, Inc. that was impossible for me to refuse. It was a good career move, and afforded me the opportunity to be more involved in the design side of the industry, and apply more of my academic knowledge to my work. So, in July 2005, I began at Nova as a Senior Project Scientist and Geologist. As it turned out, that stint was not to last, as the company was not headed in the same direction as I was. So after a lot of soul searching and a very serious conversation with the owner, I left Nova in search of a more compatible firm.
I was very lucky to land an interview with my next employer CRB Geological & Environmental Services, Inc. in April 2006. In the short time I was at CRB, I once again was doing the work I loved and involved in some new aspects of the environmental consulting industry, which I enjoyed. In time, my family business needed my attention and help full time, and I left CRB for a short time to focus on that.
When things were well again, I was heavily recruited for Nova Consulting Group (based in Minneapolis, not the one from before). After a good round of discussions and meetings, I joined Nova for a new chance to work from home, travel more, and get experience in the debt side of the industry (up to then, most of my experience was with the owner and government areas). Unfortunately, that was also the time when the economy tanked and after 18 months I was let go with a large number of field personnel with virtual offices, in October 2008.
I had been planning to sit for the Florida Licensed Professional Geologist exam by the end of 2007, and after a year-long delay, was able to not only sit but pass the first time. So, I’ve been a Florida PG since January 2009. I am extremely excited about the coming years.
A former boss was kind and brought me on board as an independent sub-contractor for the firm she was with then (LFR, now a part of ARCADIS), and in March 2009, I decided to take the leap I had been planning for for some time. So, with practically no money and a lot of faith, in March 2009 I formed GAIA Consulting Partners. The firm’s focus is entirely on the client - their needs, their goals, their plans --- their success. It hasn’t been easy and I am learning A LOT about the plethora of hoops you jump through to get registered, to get access to work, etc. more than I ever thought I would. The future is wide open at this point, and I am giving it all I have and a whole lot of faith!
As for my likes and dislikes...I love do to many things, and my interests vary a great deal. I enjoy activities from swimming (my first love) to reading and listening to almost every type of music. A brief laundry list includes hiking, camping, road trips, anything Disney, movies, computers, the internet, walking along the beach, spending time with my family and friends (hey, I only get home to Trinidad about twice a year!), and traveling as much as I can. I am a very easy-going person, as anyone who knows me will agree, and I have a very positive outlook on life in general.
If you are curious, check out my Resume.
