Amy M Brooks
Amy is a supervisor (acting) at the USGS Oregon Water Science Center. Amy supervises the studies field operations team.
I have been working for the Oregon Water Science Center as a hydrologic technician since 1998. The first 10 years of my career I focused on maintaining a network of water quality gages in the N. Santiam, Tualatin, Columbia, Clackamas, and Willamette basins. I also worked on parts per billion and trillion sampling procedures looking for nutrients, pesticides, metals and other constituents for the NAWQA, NASQAN and other project-based programs.
In 2008 I went remote and switched from field work to mentoring other technicians, and ensuring overall data quality. In 2017, I became a local data base manager (LDM). I maintain our database and set up new sites for both basic and complex datasets. Each day I oversee approximately 48 sites with more than 9 parameters each, equaling over 200 continuous time-series records. I ensure discrepancies are addressed by technicians in a timely manner.
As a mentor, I provide constructive feedback to our technicians on all aspects of data collection, analysis and approval. I am well versed and a go-to person for advice on the following parameters: Water Temperature, Specific Conductance, Dissolved Oxygen, pH, Turbidity, Air Temperature, Barometric Pressure, Total Dissolved Gas, Chlorophyl, Phycocyanin, Fluorescent dissolved organic matter (fDOM), and Nitrate.
Recently I have expanded upon my years of experience to become a supervisory technician (acting). I aim to lead my team to success amid the ever changing landscape of data collection and processing at the USGS.