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2008 Issue

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Profile: Claudette Juska

By Rebekah Oakes
June/July Issue, 2004

Claudette Juska recently joined the Ecology Center’s Auto Project team, and although new to our staff, Claudette is no stranger to environmental activism. A graduate of the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and former employee of Ford Motor Company, Claudette brings much more to the Ecology Center’s Auto Project than her engineering expertise.

While working for Ford, Claudette often found it difficult to reconcile her role in building enormous gas-guzzling SUVs when her conscience would never allow her to drive one. Claudette knew her interest in environmental policy and her engineering background could benefit more than just the auto industry.

After leaving Ford, Claudette joined the Peace Corps for a two-year assignment in Zambia. Once the two months of training was complete, the shock of her new and foreign environment began to set in. “Just as the others in the Peace Corps training program were getting to know each other, a land cruiser dropped me and all my things off by the side of some road in Zambia, waved good-bye and yelled to find the village when I got hungry and needed to eat.”

After a physically and emotionally exhausting period of adjustment, Claudette acclimated to her new surroundings, becoming friendly with the locals and working closely with them in their communities. “I worked on water and sanitation improvements in agricultural communities and helped locals in building wells and bridges, as well as promoting conservation farming and nutrition, and teaching hygiene and sanitation practices that prevent diseases. I also organized a health-clinic construction project.”

When her successful two-year assignment with the Peace Corps had ended, Claudette chose to stay on for an additional year to work as an advisor to a local Zambian environmental organization called Help Ministries Project. “The project focused on stopping environmental degradation in local communities in Zambia,” said Claudette. “They dealt with issues such as deforestation, soil and water chemical contaminations, and poor environmental hygiene practices. I did a lot of policy work there, helping local governments and tribal chiefs to fine people that broke environmental laws, to distribute land to farmers that agreed to practice conservation farming, and to improve the local infrastructure regarding bridges, roads, schools, and clinics.”

At the end of three years in Zambia, Claudette moved back across the Atlantic to Ann Arbor, where she faced the surprising challenge of readjusting to a once intensely familiar country she had always called home.

As part of her Auto Project work, Claudette will be visiting automakers throughout the Midwest this summer to discuss new advancements in “green” automotive technology. Claudette has recently been accepted to the graduate program at the School of Natural Resources at U-M, and will be pursuing a Masters of Science in Conservation Biology and Environmental Policy.

Rebekah Oakes is editorial assistant for From the Ground Up.

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