Last summer, Environmental Health Science and Policy MPH student Taylor Katz completed an internship at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) headquarters in Washington, DC. She contributed to the most recent version of the agency’s Report on the Environment (ROE), a compilation of information on the best available indicators of national conditions and trends in air, water, land, human heath, ecological systems, and sustainability.
Unlike past versions of the report, the 2014 Report on the Environment is entirely online. Because the report can be a valuable resource for scientists, decisions-makers, and the public, the team that produced it wanted to ensure that users can find the exact information they want, when they need it. That’s where Katz, who is in GW’s five year joint BSPH/MPH Program, came in. She helped the team bullet-test and improve the Report on the Environment website by conducting usability tests with EPA employees.
“Working here allowed me to better understand the ins and outs of what really goes on at the EPA,” Katz said in a blog. “I was able to familiarize myself with different offices, while also witnessing the real life applications of information that I study in textbooks and attend lectures on.”