
GRIIDC Hires Lalitha Asirvadam as New Technical Coordinator
The GRIIDC team continues to grow and adapt!
We are excited to announce that in January, GRIIDC hired Lalitha Asirvadam as the new Technical Coordinator.
Lalitha is coming on board after a few changes to our GRIIDC administrative team. In August 2018, Sandra Ellis, Program Manager, took a new job working for the City of Corpus Christi. Rosalie Rossi, who was the Technical Coordinator, moved into the Program Manager role leaving an opening for the Technical Coordinator role.
Lalitha previously worked at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute as the Program Coordinator for the Dispersion Research on Oil: Physics and Plankton Studies (DROPPS) consortium in Port Aransas, Texas. She was also the outreach coordinator and data manager for the consortium. This position gave her a lot of experience working with different groups — including GRIIDC, who she was in regular communication with as data manager — and exploring the different ways of communicating science through outreach. She hopes to use her outreach experience in her new position with GRIIDC by writing articles for the website and promoting the importance of open data.
Lalitha earned her Master's degree in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego. Lalitha’s interdisciplinary degree covered an array of topics including marine law, fisheries science, economics, science communications, ecology, and biology. Lalitha’s project on mangrove conservation aimed to highlight the critical role mangroves play in coastal resilience, coral reef health, and island economics on the Caribbean nation of Curaçao. She authored a policy report encouraging local change with specific policy measures to the government of Curaçao. She also created an infographics poster to help locals better understand and appreciate mangrove habitats.
Before graduate school Lalitha worked in consulting as an Environmental Scientist and was involved in various environmental projects with clients such as AT&T, Walmart, and the City of Austin. Lalitha’s first job out of college was as Project Manager at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in the Leaking Petroleum Storage Tank section of the Remediation Division. The bulk of her work was on soil and groundwater remediation projects where she spent her time analyzing reports to determine contaminant concentrations; soil/plume delineation; and ecological and human health impacts. Lalitha received her bachelor’s degree in Conservation Geography and Marine Science at the University of Texas at Austin.
Welcome Lalitha!