2024 Stanford EPIC Fellow: Fiona Mooney
Job Title: Toxics Reduction & Healthy Communities Intern
Department/Team: Toxics Reduction & Healthy Communities Team at the San Francisco Environment Department
Location: Hybrid (3 days per week) in San Francisco, California
Duration: 40 hours per week for ten weeks over the summer
Reports to: Huy Le (Senior Toxics Reduction Program Coordinator)
Areas of Interest: Toxics and chemical reduction, community outreach, local policy engagement
About the San Francisco Environment Department:
The San Francisco Department of the Environment provides solutions that protect the environment and enhance quality of life for all San Franciscans, and beyond. For more information on the Department of the Environment, visit www.SFEnvironment.org.
About the Toxics Reduction & Healthy Communities Program:
The Toxics Reduction & Healthy Communities Program leads a variety of programs, policies and projects, ranging from reducing the use of harmful chemicals in residential, commercial and City government settings. Projects and programs we undertake at the local level often become models for scaling elsewhere! Current initiatives include:
- eliminating the use of fluorochemicals in numerous consumer and industrial uses
- tackling antibiotic resistance
- supporting small businesses to adopt sustainable practices
- addressing microfiber pollution
Position Description/Scope of Work:
The intern would work with SFE staff to advance programs and policy initiatives, engage with the community, and obtain experience working at the intersection of a variety of environmental issues.
List of Potential Projects:
- Help implement the San Francisco Healthy Nail Salon Program
- Conduct outreach to residents about proper disposal of toxics products
- Researching products and identifying safer alternatives to toxic products
- Assist with implementing a pilot collection program for household hazardous waste
- Public engagement with boaters on efforts to properly manage the disposal of marine flares
- Research vape products and identify collaborative opportunities with San Francisco Unified School Districts and smoke shops to serve as collection sites
- Conducting outreach and technical assistance to commercial businesses and residents
- Assisting in creating policies and programs that drive the use of safer products in San Francisco
- Drafting policy and outreach documents
- Conducting surveys and analyzing results
Desired Skills/Qualifications:
- Data heads, you are welcome here! We would love to leverage your ability to prepare reports, spreadsheets, data and documentation for reporting information to the public.
- Enjoy writing? We have many needs for public-facing materials including factsheets, web pages, presentations, etc.
- Do you have phone super powers? Research by our department often involves making phone calls to a wide range of businesses, residents and other stakeholders. Those who are persistent enough to navigate a phone tree and find the right person, and then have an engaging phone voice are gold.
- Are you confident, self-motivated and a well-organized individual?
- Can you analyze and synthesize information from various sources?
- Second language commonly spoken in San Francisco, especially Vietnamese, Spanish and/or Chinese.
If any or all of the above sounds like you, then join us and be a part of making the world a better place, starting in San Francisco!
Logistics:
- EPIC fellows are required to work full-time (35-40 hours per week) for 10 weeks over the summer, and will receive a stipend of $8,000 – $9,500, depending on financial need. This stipend is intended to help cover living and transportation expenses during the fellowship, which the student is expected to arrange and coordinate.
- Start and end dates are flexible (start date no later than July 7, 2025).