SLVEC seeks crew members for valleywide Air Quality Monitoring study
- Kaitlyn Fletcher
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
The San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council (SLVEC) was tapped to participate in the initial infrastructure of an expansive air quality monitoring network. SLVEC now seeks a compensated crew of multiple Community Navigators and Recruiters from across all six Valley counties as part of the intervention initiative, under the Mountain West Hub. These positions will be the boots on the ground for recruitment and data collection for this initiative over the next three years.
The Mountain West Hub, based at the Colorado School of Public Health, is “a collaborative partnership to promote strong and healthy rural and urban communities.” It will move forward with Phase II of its environmental health monitoring throughout the San Luis Valley and West Denver Metro.
This second phase extends and continues with work completed in Phase I, which revealed the need for "culturally relevant, community-driven resilience strategies" to environmental air quality stressors, such as heat, drought, aerosolized topsoil, and wildfire smoke.
Lisa C. Cicutto, PhD, is a co-investigator for this research. She serves as the Director of Community Outreach and Research at National Jewish Health, within the Department of Medicine.
“Twenty years ago, when I started coming to the Valley, people would say, ‘Lisa, we have lung problems here because of the dust’. This community insight was confirmed by the data,” Cicutto said. “Sure enough, emergency room visits, walk-ins, and hospitalizations increased for lung issues due to dust storms.”
SLVEC will initially be responsible, in partnership with Adams State University, for installing and maintaining this new air-quality monitoring network of 10 sensors and five filter samplers. The network will collect real-time particulate matter in outdoor air sensors and physical dust samples for laboratory analysis. The results will be shared with Valley communities via a web-based platform that is still under development, with an expected late spring launch.
"I am super excited about this opportunity to work with the community to set up an air quality monitoring infrastructure throughout the Valley,” Cicutto said. “Each county will have one or more air quality monitors. All residents will be able to know the results in real time, as they are measured, by going to the SLV Air website.”
Cicutto further explained that this air quality infrastructure will forecast dust storms and allow communities to “take action to avoid or reduce exposures” when dust levels are high.
This initiative includes input from a large San Luis Valley advisory board, which is comprised of community members, public health and medical practitioners, farmers, and policy professionals working towards local climate resilience.
In 2012, SLVEC became involved in environmental health monitoring through a Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) project, funded by the Environmental Protection Agency. Valley communities identified their top three environmental concerns as air quality, water quality, and illegal dumping. SLVEC conducted Environmental Health Risk assessments in 13 communities across all six counties, including the distribution of 500 free radon test kits.
Please get in touch with Kathy James, research investigator at Colorado School of Public Health, with any further questions about these roles (Kathy.James@cuanschutz.edu). Deadline for applications is December 15th, 2025. They will be reviewed on a rolling basis until filled.