Join us on November 8 for a virtual RCA Career Pathways panel, Reedies in Sustainability–Watersheds.

Panelists include Jenny Balmagia ’14 (Lower Salinas Valley SGMA Watershed Coordinator, Santa Cruz, CA), Nina Bell ’77 (Executive Director, Northwest Environmental Advocates, Portland, OR), Zac Perry (Facilities Operations Manager, Reed College, Portland, OR - master of the Canyon restoration!), and Paula vanHaagen ’79 (Unit Manager, Seattle EPA Office, retired). Hear these Reedie experts in watersheds talk about their professional journeys and discuss what skills, challenges, and opportunities one may anticipate in the field.

Register here for the event!

Start time:

• 5 p.m. Pacific
• 6 p.m. Mountain
• 7 p.m. Central
• 8 p.m. Eastern

The Reedies in Sustainability–Watersheds panel is the twelfth installment of the ongoing Career Pathways panel series hosted by the Reed Career Alliance committee of the Alumni Board that explores different career pathways taken by Reedies in a similar field of work. Past panels are available to watch at any time on alumni.reed.edu.

Panelist Bios

Jenny Balmagia ’14, Lower Salinas Valley SGMA Watershed Coordinator, Central Coast Wetlands Group (CCWG), Santa Cruz, CA

Jenny is a water resources scientist with a background in ecology, wetland restoration and assessment, and water quality monitoring. She received her Bachelor's degree in Biology in 2014 from Reed College and her Master's degree in Environmental Science and Management, specializing in water resources management, from the Bren School of Science & Management at UC Santa Barbara in 2020. For her Master's project, she helped design a decision support tool to aid groundwater managers in California's Central Valley in identifying the most suitable sites for managed aquifer recharge projects that have the potential to provide additional benefits to communities and ecosystems. 

Jenny began working for CCWG in 2015 as a Watershed Stewards Program member assessing watershed health using CRAM and RipRAM, and continued working as a research assistant constructing and studying treatment wetlands and woodchip bioreactors. After leaving to earn her Master's degree, she rejoined CCWG in 2021 as the Lower Salinas Valley Watershed Coordinator. In her current role she is responsible for coordinating the implementation of multiple benefit watershed projects through facilitating interagency coordination and partnership development with regional stakeholders including surface and groundwater managers, agricultural entities, and community-based groups. 

Jenny has also been rock climbing for over 15 years, and when not trying to create healthier watersheds, she can often be found on the side of a rock in the mountains or desert.
 

Nina Bell ’77, Executive Director, Northwest Environmental Advocates (NWEA), Portland, OR

Upon joining the organization in 1977, Nina began representing NWEA before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in safety and licensing hearings regarding the now-closed Trojan Nuclear Power Plant (OR), four of five of the WPPSS Nuclear Plants (WA), and others. This work led to a two-year stint at the Washington, D.C.-based Nuclear Information & Resource Service, where she provided advice to groups across the country. Upon her return to the Pacific Northwest, Nina put the quality of the Columbia River on the region’s agenda and co- chaired the $2.4 million Lower Columbia River Bi-State Water Quality Study.

Under Nina’s leadership, NWEA established the RiverWatch program that took the public on boat tours of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers, installed multilingual warning signs on the highly polluted Columbia Slough, and published two highly-acclaimed educational maps, Columbia River: Troubled Waters and Portland/Vancouver: Toxic Waters. These and other extensive outreach efforts spawned citizen and government action.

Nina is a nationally-recognized expert in the area of water quality regulation, having been involved in all of its aspects both nationally and in the Pacific Northwest, including water quality standards, 303(d) lists and Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL), NPDES permits, and nonpoint source controls. Trained in the law, Nina assists with litigation and is responsible for the organization’s extensive participation in underlying regulatory processes and negotiations. Nina has served on numerous advisory committees including EPA’s Federal Advisory Committee on
TMDLs (1996-98) and innumerable water quality standards advisory committees to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the Washington Department of Ecology.
 

Zac Perry, Facilities Operations Manager, Reed Canyon Restoration Master

Zachariah Perry was hired by Reed College in 1999 to help create a strategy of rehabilitation for a centralized 28-acre degraded greenspace in the middle of campus known as Reed Canyon. Supported by his formal education of botany, horticulture and environmental science, Zac set forth on leading teams of volunteers and students to strategically removal years of invasive plant material and reintroduce a wide array of native cover through innovative methods of propagation and cultivation. He is responsible for managing all aspects of the restoration, which include removing a 70-year old swimming pool and reconstructing the space into a fish ladder system designed to allow juvenile salmonids to access the headwaters of Crystal Springs creek, the cleanest and coldest water source in the City of Portland. 

Zac has developed a system of monitoring change over time, and is responsible for creating lasting partnerships with local agencies and science faculty, which help support strategic approaches and adaptive management practices. Zac is credited with essentially taking an area of campus from being a blight, to a highly functional and proud example of what efforts focused on urban restoration can support with focused efforts and community engagement. 

Zac has moved into a position of management which takes his skills away from the field,but allows for a broader application of restorative and sustainable practices to a wider scope of work. Now in charge of the grounds and maintenance departments at Reed College, Zac is able to use his expertise and long-serving partnerships to improve and adapt the functions of facilities operations over a 130-acre campus, and build a cohesive language throughout the community to further support what is now considered a ‘Gem of the City’ and the last free flowing stream system in Portland. 

Most recently, Zac was honored with the 2022 National Wetlands Award for his work at Reed College which he received in Washington D.C. from the Environmental Law Institute.

In his personal life Zac is supported by his two daughters and wife of 20 years. He spends his free time being an advocate for safe routes to schools and community engagement by being the chair of his neighborhood association for the past 10 years.

Paula vanHaagen ’79 Unit Manager, Seattle EPA Office (retired)

Paula graduated from Reed in 1979 with a BA in Political Science, after trying all the other sciences. She received a Master of Public Policy from Kennedy School of Government, Harvard, with an emphasis on Energy and Environmental Policy, in 1984. From 1984-1986, she worked in Washington, D.C., at Department of Energy in two positions. From 1986–1990, she worked at the Office of Management & Budget working on EPA’s budget and regulations.

In 1990, she moved “home” to Seattle and worked at EPA’s regional office in Seattle. Most of her time was in the Office of Water, addressing water quality issues from a watershed perspective. In 2000-2015, she held supervisory positions responsible for various water quality programs including water quality standards; grants to states, tribes and non-profits; Clean Water State Revolving Fund; National Estuary Partnerships; storm water; and climate change. In 2015 she became the Region’s Grants Management Officer, supervising grant specialists and responsible for awarding the Region’s grants. She retired in 2019.

She lives in West Seattle where she volunteers in several roles with Community Loaves, a nonprofit providing home-made bread and energy cookies to local food banks, and holds several roles with Westside UU congregation including chairing Facilities and singing in the choir. She enjoys the constant editing of her garden, walking/running/hiking with friends, baking sourdough products and reading/researching about bread and other food.