Employee Spotlight: Cameron Alexander

Meet ORAU employee Cameron Alexander! Cameron is an ORAU contractor working under the National Student Services Contract (NSSC) at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As a Cell Line Support Lab Technician in Triangle Park, NC, Cameron supports EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD), the Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure (CCTE), the Biomolecular and Computational Toxicology Division (BCTD), and the Advanced Experimental Toxicology Models Branch (AETMB). Cameron’s work with CCTE supports efforts to determine how to change the current approaches used to evaluate the safety of chemicals.

Cameron is currently developing a biomarker for the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) that will help identify chemicals that activate or inhibit the receptor. Cameron stated that this is important as GR regulates genes that play roles in controlling development, metabolism, and immune responses. Aside from that, Cameron is working on a second project. For this project, she is looking at both metabolomic and transcriptomic data of mice that were exposed to “produced water.”  Produced water is a byproduct of extracting oil and natural gas and may pose as a hazard to the environment so further testing of this water can help with proper regulation.

Cameron is a newly hired contractor on the EPA National Student Services Contract. When asked why she chose this contract after earning her degree, Cameron said, “Along with this role aligning with my love for hands-on lab work, I was drawn to the greater impact that my work would contribute to at the EPA. Being a part of an agency, whose main goal is protecting people and the environment from significant health risks and aiding in environmental regulations, is something that allows me to be a part of something bigger than myself. The idea of this is what inevitably drew me to choose my contract.”

When asked what her favorite part of working at EPA has been so far, Cameron said, “My favorite part of joining the EPA team has been the people that I have the pleasure of interacting with every day. I have such an amazing support system in my colleagues, and they never hesitate to lend a helping hand when I need it.”

Background

Cameron graduated from North Carolina State University, earning a Bachelor of Science in Molecular & Structural Biochemistry. At NC State, she was a teaching assistant in Advanced Biochemistry. During this class, she discovered she enjoyed hands-on lab work and writing lab reports. When she heard about the opportunity to be a cell line support lab technician at the EPA, she was thrilled to learn that she could utilize her previous lab techniques and learn additional laboratory skills.

Fun Facts:  Cameron enjoys spending her free time outdoors. She has recently picked up pickleball and enjoys playing sand volleyball. She also enjoys relaxing by watching Netflix and cuddling with her dog Koda. An interesting fun fact about Cameron is that she climbed the Mask Temple in the Maya ruins of Lamanai, an archaeological site in Belize, this past summer. The construction of the temple is thought to have begun circa 200 BC and has masks symmetrically carved on its base that depict Olmec's facial features. These masks are significant as the Olmecs are believed to be the early rulers of Lamanai and their civilization disappeared in 400 BCE, 200 years before the Mask Temple was built. The mystery of how the Mask Temple ended up portraying masks with Olmec features is one of the main reasons why people travel to the ruins of Lamanai. Cameron said it was cool seeing and climbing it in person!