#10 - Public Works Department Audit

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Environmental Justice, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, And Accessibility Strategic Plan. Cielo served as the lead investigator conducting and analyzing individual, working group, and executive management interviews regarding the effectiveness of the strategic plan from 2020-2023. Cielo led the investigation and development of documentation detailing the evolution of the strategic plan throughout leadership turnover, daylighting key metrics and goals that had been previously obscured. Cielo assisted in developing new metrics for evaluating the success associated with each goal and revising the strategic plan to align with the top goals identified by personnel. U.S. Geological Survey: Community Outreach and Science Communication Fellowship (2022 - 2024) Since 2019, Cielo has been a principal investigator involved in numerous environmental risk management projects with stakeholders and community members in Holyoke, which aimed at increasing community resilience to hydrologic hazards. As a fellow of the U.S Geological Survey, Cielo developed a multi-stage sampling approach to understand knowledge systems, perception of environmental risk, and factors driving water use decisions in the Holyoke community, contributing to the preparation of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documents and a climate resilience strategic plan for a community NGO. Cielo designed and analyzed bilingual surveys administered to individual stakeholders, focus group participants, and NGO executive management. Cielo led a series of science communication workshops to increase community engagement and awareness of environmental risk to 100 participants. Cielo also served as an on-call scientist for community NGOs, performing water quality and quantity analysis using field investigatio ns and hydrological modeling software. City of Fitchburg (MA): Community Outreach Campaign for NPDES & MS4 Compliance (2018) In 2012, after receiving a consent decree from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the City of Fitchburg sought to address deficiencies in the City’s combined sewer overflow system (CSO). Cielo worked with the Fitchburg Department of Public Works to identify methods to reduce stormwater runoff volume in the North Nashua River and maintain compliance with U.S. EPA’s Public Education and Outreach minimum control measure through a community outreach campaign with the Fitchburg Public Schools. Cielo led the design of an educational workbook and educator resource guide to support hands-on engagement in stormwater awareness. Cielo supported the City of Fitchburg DPW in compliance with the Clean Water Act, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), and Massachusetts Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4) through internal and external stakeholder interviews, field research and investigation, and the community outreach campaign. RELEVANT PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Energy Transition Institute: National Science Foundation Research Trainee (2021 -2024) Heavier, more intense summer storms have increased annual precipitation in the Northeast, leading to increased concern over large-scale contaminant transport in surface and groundwater. Cielo served as a lead scientist responsible for designing, constructing, and evaluating watershed-scale hydrodynamic models (HEC-HMS, HEC-RAS, MODFLOW) to assess the impact of climate change, extreme rainfall, and severe weather events on ecosystems. Since extreme weather can cause economic effects on local governments, utilities, and businesses, Cielo designed a case study simulating future changes in river discharges, reservoir storage, and sediment load under several extreme rainfall scenarios. Cielo utilized the results of this study to determine the downstream economic costs of climate change on hydropower capacity and generation on the New England Independent System Operator (ISO-NE). Cielo collaborated with community groups, interdisciplinary technical experts, and federal agency representatives to develop a comprehens ive climate resilience plan.