Zelma Maine-Jackson facts for kids

Zelma Maine-Jackson is an American scientist who studies water underground. She is known as a hydrogeologist at the Washington Department of Ecology. Zelma Maine-Jackson has worked for a long time on cleaning up nuclear waste at a place called the Hanford Site. Her work was even featured in a story called Daughters of Hanford by Northwest Public Broadcasting in 2015.

Early Life and Education

Zelma Maine-Jackson grew up with her grandmother in the Gullah-Geechee Nation in South Carolina. When she was seven, she moved to a U.S. Army Base in Heilbronn, Germany with her parents. Her grandmother was a midwife and taught her about nature. She showed Zelma that red clay could help women who didn't have enough iron. This inspired Zelma to study geology, which is the study of Earth's rocks and soil.

Her strong science education and ability to speak German helped her join a special program. Companies like ARCO, Shell, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil paid for students' college education. In the summers, these students worked in oil fields or at sites where they looked for uranium.

Zelma earned her first college degree from Virginia State University. Later, she got her master's degree in economic geology from the University of Washington. While she was studying for her master's, she worked near Mount Baker. This was only about 300 miles north of Mount St. Helens when it erupted in 1980.

Career as a Geologist

Zelma Maine-Jackson started her career looking for uranium. She worked for the Atlantic Richfield Oil Company in the Rocky Mountains. In the 1980s, she worked on drill rigs. These are machines that drill deep into the ground. She even worked at the Hanford Site. There, she studied how groundwater flows towards places where dangerous radioactive waste was stored. She also looked at core samples, which are pieces of rock and soil drilled out of the ground.

For over twenty years, Zelma has worked for the Washington Department of Ecology. Her job is to help clean up the Hanford Site. This is a very important task to protect the environment. She also serves on a board for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. This board helps guide studies about Earth and life.

Helping Communities and Nature

Zelma Maine-Jackson is a trustee at The Nature Conservancy in South Carolina. She helps protect loggerhead sea turtles and other wildlife in the ACE Basin. She has also served on many important groups in the State of Washington.

For example, she was on the African American Affairs Commission under four different governors. She was also the chairperson for the City of Kennewick Diversity Commission. She was appointed twice to the Washington State Community Economic Revitalization Board. She also advised the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Zelma is a founding member of the National Association of Black Geoscientists. She has also spoken up for communities that have been harmed by nuclear waste.