LAS VEGAS - Dawn Peterson loves a challenge.
She’s tackled many of them in her more than 20 years supporting the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) missions, helping remediate and close over 100 contaminated sites, as regulated by a legal agreement.
Peterson points to the excavation of an unexploded ordinance landfill on the Tonopah Test Range as one of her most exciting projects. Her team completed the complicated EM work at the efficiently and cost effectively.
Having spent most of her career working in the field, Peterson now enjoys her role as closure support manager for contractor Navarro, indoors at the Nevada Support Facility. She works closely with EM’s groundwater characterization and soils projects, coordinating field resources to support remediation efforts and drilling operations and collect groundwater and geologic samples. Peterson has become adept in the technical aspects of the project, which ensures the public is protected from access to contaminated groundwater.
“I’m learning a lot at a fast pace, and it’s been fun," she said.
Peterson worked as a contractor task manager for DOE cleanup projects at past underground nuclear test sites in Colorado, New Mexico, Mississippi, Alaska and outside NNSS in Nevada.
In 2014, she received a master’s degree in project management from the Keller Graduate School of Management. It’s been critical to her success as she provides direction and oversight to field personnel performing characterization and environmental restoration activities on the NNSS.
No career challenges have compared to the demands she faced while obtaining her undergraduate degree in geology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. A single parent with a special-needs child, Peterson worked full time as a restaurant manager while completing her degree.
“I have no idea how I did it, but if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be where I am today," she said.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
