We are pleased to introduce Ruthie Redmond as the Sierra Club, Lone Star Chapter’s Water Resources Specialist. Ruthie will focus on water policy issues across Texas including water conservation, drought response, sustainable groundwater management, and river and estuary protection. Ruthie previously interned with the U.S. Forest Service as a Forestry Technician in Loa, Utah, and with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) in Air Quality as an Engineering Technician before becoming a Natural Resources Specialist in the Water Availability Division of TCEQ in 2012.
Ruthie views the health and availability of water resources as a vital part of a functional and growing society. She is excited to join the Texas Living Waters Project and looks forward to working with community members, organizations, businesses, and policymakers in finding new viable and innovative ways to steward the protection and responsible management of our water resources.
Raised in Austin, Texas, Ruthie’s vision is to progress her state towards a more environmentally sustainable and economically equitable future. To that end she earned a B.S. in Geography - Resource and Environmental Studies with a minor in Economics from Texas State University, San Marcos. Ruthie has focused much of her time volunteering for organizations in Austin such as the Texas Green Network, 5604 Manor Community Garden, the Food Surplus & Salvage Working Group of the Sustainable Food Policy Board.
Ruthie is a 2014 graduate of Austin CityWorks Academy, a program designed to provide Austinites an opportunity to learn about the City’s governmental processes, its procedures and the people who deliver these services. She regularly attends workshops and trainings to become more equipped with the tools and knowledge necessary to make a beneficial impact on her community. Some of these workshops include: Undoing Racism Austin, an organization that promotes and facilitates dialogue among community members to synthesize the communities’ demands for justice and the possibilities for enacting immediate change, and Reinvested Communities, an initiative bringing together people interested in promoting strategies to reduce barriers to successful reentry for formerly incarcerated individuals.
She has served as a Board Member on the City of Austin Environmental Board and has most recently volunteered for local organizations like the Austin Sierra Club Executive Committee and the Community Advancement Network Community Council. In her free time, she enjoys doing yoga, being with nature, looking at stars, and spending time with family and friends. Her favorite things in life are wind and fractals.
You can read more about the Chapter’s water work at www.texaslivingwaters.org.