Monica Dougherty joined IKE in April to serve as the project coordinator for the Indy Urban Pesticide Initiative. Originally from Fort Wayne, she made a 4-year pilgrimage to Bloomington where she majored in chemistry, biology and religious studies.

Immediately upon graduation in 1998, Monica joined the Peace Corps and was shipped to the little-known former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan. While there she taught environmental education to school children and learned of many environmental disasters in this cold land of potential oil, mafia and Soviet block housing.

After Monica finished her two-year stint and traveled through the tropics to get the Siberian winter out of her bones, she returned home with a desire to do something for her own country. She moved to Indy and took a couple graduate classes through IU SPEA, where she found out about IKE and the great work it does. As she says, “who can argue with improving kids' environment?” She's having a great time in Indy working on pesticide issues, volunteering for Indy READS literacy group, and reconnecting with her fellow Hoosiers