RemPlex Seminar: Workforce Development in the Environmental Remediation Field
The Center for the Remediation of Complex Sites and the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Network of Environmental Remediation and NORM Management co-host a panel discussion about workforce development challenges and opportunities.
Access to a trained workforce is one of the biggest challenges facing implementation of technically sound, cost-effective, timely, and sustainable remediation projects. Even in sectors and countries with robust remediation-support infrastructure, workforce development can be a significant constraint that threatens to worsen as the current workforce ages toward retirement.
The Center for the Remediation of Complex Sites (RemPlex) presents “Workforce Development in the Environmental Remediation Field” on August 13, 2024, from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. Pacific time (5:00 to 6:30 p.m. CEST). The seminar is jointly hosted with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Network of Environmental Remediation and NORM Management (ENVIRONET). Registration is free and open to the public. Watch the video recording of the seminar.
This seminar will engage panelists with direct experience as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education program managers, university-level educators, and agency and industry leaders who are facing shortages of trained staff. Centered on a discussion of workforce development challenges and opportunities, topics to be explored include:
- building effective multidisciplinary teams that integrate physical sciences, engineering, health risk management, information technology, cost estimation and budgeting, project management, stakeholder engagement, and more;
- growing a pipeline of professional development that spans the recruitment of students through providing continuing education for the existing workforce;
- making sure the expertise and experience of senior practitioners is retained through knowledge management; and
- developing a diverse workforce and maximizing its value.
International Panelists
- David Becker, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Environmental and Munitions Center of Expertise; adjunct professor at University of Nebraska-Omaha
- Veronica Dickerson, U.S. Department of the Interior, Environmental Compliance and Cleanup Division
- Maria de Lurdes Dinis, University of Porto, lead of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters in Nuclear Decommissioning and Environmental Remediation (MINDER)
- Maria Naydenova, IAEA, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship Programme project manager
- Genia McKinley, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management, EM Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program (EM MSIPP)
- Evangelina Shreeve, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory chief diversity officer and director of STEM Education
Facilitators
- Horst Monken-Fernandes, IAEA, scientific secretary of ENVIRONET
- Karen P. Smith, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, RemPlex deputy director of operations