Sharon Ruth (BS Geology, 2000)

I am currently a Public Information Representative for Communications and Marketing at the Office of Research at the University of California, Davis. Prior to joining the Office of Research, I worked as Communications and Marketing Manager for the UC Davis John Muir Institute of the Environment for over a decade after receiving my M.S. in Hydrology from UC Davis.

Yes, from a BS in Geology and MS in Hydrology to communications? You see, I absolutely love learning, especially science, and even more so, the earth (thanks to the excellent faculty at CWU Geology). So after Central, I came down to California to study watershed management, learning at the intersections of geology, hydrology, and ecology. It was a wonderful education, but the more I learned about the way a university functions, the more I wanted to support the innovative research and educational efforts of faculty, who have little time to spare for things like communications and marketing of their work. So I jumped over to a field where I could continue learning new things, but then communicate that knowledge outside of the Ivory Tower for those who aren't so lucky to spend all their time at a university.

I've had a lot of fun at UC Davis, where my duties have included everything from planning and implementation strategic communications for research and science programs, participating as a regular guest lecturer for graduate students on the topic of science communications and writing, and serving on campuswide initiatives including the Third Governors' Global Climate Summit Steering Committee with then-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

My husband, Ryan, and I have two kids, Cassidy and Apollo, who are so happy and brimming with life that it is almost exhausting.

We never intended to stay in California - we were supposed to come down here, get our degrees, and then move back north (at least north of the 45th parallel!). However, I was offered such excellent career steps at a university I am very proud to be part of, so here we are still, 12 years later. I commute by bicycle to my job; we raise chickens and the husband uses his green thumb to maintain an incredible urban garden here in downtown Davis; and our little family are expert tent campers in the fall and winter (thanks to Washington for the cold and rain training) and when we camp we all hunt edible mushrooms.

And I still post Tim Melbourne's global moment tensor map from 1999 in every office I move to.