Anastasia Klosterman was a graduate student under Dr. Brock Woodson, where she received her Master’s degree as part of the COBIA lab. Now, she’s working for the engineering firm Burns and McDonnell, helping to facilitate the implementation of electric vehicles in Georgia. Recently, she was selected for the second time by Engineering Georgia as one of the 35 women to know under 35.
Tell me a bit about your background
I did my research with Dr. Woodson at the UGA College of Engineering in undergrad, and that pretty much rolled into my master’s degree. But Dr. Woodson taught me that I could do anything with an engineering degree, because he’s taken a very unique path in terms of what he’s done with his own degree.
I started at Burns and McDonnell in our environmental group, which was the team I had interned with for two summers. During that period, I focused on compliance work — like spill prevention plans and stormwater pollution plans for a lot of different types of companies — before I decided I needed a change.
Electric vehicles have been a growing space the past few years. And our company started building a team to respond to that need. We do a lot of work with utilities as probably one of our biggest business lines, and so we had this unique opportunity to kind of be a connection between utilities and electrification, and I had a lot of interest in doing something a little bit more impactful. I reached out and got an interview and was able to join that team. I’ve been here now for about a year and half.
What have you been working on in that time?
Essentially, I’ve been working on electric vehicle transition plans, helping as municipalities, communities and corporations are responding to either executive orders or just personal green zero emission goals.
There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes to actually make that possible. So I do a lot of deep data work. Honestly, a lot of those skills came from my master’s work. I did a lot of coding during my master’s thesis, and now I do coding to manipulate data and look at trends. So it’s a nice balance of being able to attend a lot of conferences, and speak at things, and then I also still spend a lot of time at a desk and at a computer. I’ve been able to kind of balance those strengths, because I love talking to people, but also I love the challenge of data mining. I’ve been really happy with this fit.
What initially sparked your interest in the EV field?
So at Burns and McDonnell there’s a program that’s sort of like a shark tank, meant to spark new ideas. It’s called Ignite. When I finished my master’s degree, there was like, a huge gap of missing that learning and innovation. So me and two other co-workers decided to pitch on essentially a business to get into electric vehicle battery recycling or repurposing.
That was my first real exposure to the space. I obviously had known it was happening — I mean, you drive around, you see all the different vehicles on the road, but I wasn’t really looking into all the details and technicalities of electric vehicles. But I found I was able to leverage a lot of things I’d learned in my Master’s like data collection and data mining, and apply that to the electric vehicle pitch. And that was how I got into, specifically electric vehicles.
What got you into the environment in the first place?
My introduction into the environmental space probably came directly from Dr Woodson, and the research that I did with him. He was actually my First Year Odyssey professor. The class was called something like, “The ocean and me,” and I chose it. Once I got into, like my sophomore year, probably like closer to, like the end of my sophomore year, I really got interested in CURO research, and so I reached out to Dr. Woodson, and I was like, “Hey, I liked your class. Is there any opportunity to do research?”
He’s so good about taking students under his wing and just giving you a chance. So I took that chance. It really exposed me to a different side of engineering, that I hadn’t seen in the classroom. Before that I’d felt a bit lost — I didn’t want to do the traditional structural civil track, but I also knew that I didn’t love fluid dynamics, either, and I didn’t want to do storm water or anything in that field. I didn’t know where I fit in. But working with Dr Woodson in such an innovative space showed me I could take my civil engineering degree and get an environmental job or an industrial job or a mechanical job, or just do whatever I wanted, as long as I found something I was passionate about.
Tell me a little bit about your time at the College of Engineering
Sure! My undergrad research was supporting Dr. Woodson in his aquatic biomass and fish biodiversity trend research. It was very connected to marine biology based research he does. So it was looking at the food pyramid and biomass what we believe it to be versus the reality. I helped him go through and look at fisheries data, and then make models to see how things might look over time.
And when we got into my Master’s thesis, we decided that we should probably do something that aligned, a bit more with an individual path that I could take. There had been a lot of questions about salt marshes, so I looked at marsh mitigation data, and then tried to create a universal code for ranking natural infrastructure.
Essentially, a lot of the infrastructure across the United States is gray infrastructure. Concrete sea walls, things of that nature, are kind of rated by health on this universal code–they’re given this grade. And there’s not a code that’s applied to natural infrastructure (salt marshes and the like, if we’re specifically talking about shorelines). So I worked on creating the standards for when a salt marsh would be in danger based on that individual rating code that was already applied to gray infrastructure. The idea was that then they could all be looked at on one rate sheet, instead of natural infrastructure getting left out of the thought process.
We also looked at more of a hybrid approach, so kind of looking at what the best methods were for saving our shorelines and helping keep the health of salt marshes in a positive place, because we need them. Essentially, if we want to have land to live on, we’re going to need them.
It was a very cool project. And I took so many skills away from it. I’ve talked to a few people once I got my master’s degree, and they’re like, “Well, you’re not directly doing anything with fisheries or salt marshes or the ocean.” But there are just so many skills that I took away from it outside of the exact topic. I became so familiar with data mining and collection. And the analysis was super complex and cool, and those skills have been carried on.
Where do you see yourself next?
I think that because I have that small team feel in a big company, I’m given a lot of cool opportunities and trust. It’s kind of the same thing as the College of Engineering in the University of Georgia.
Now I’m given a lot of trust and opportunities that people at my point in my career aren’t typically given. I’ve spoken at conferences and I’ve led projects and I’ve been able to hold client relationships myself. With only being three, roughly three years out of school, that’s a pretty unique opportunity.
I’m really excited to see what happens as this industry continues to evolve, because a huge talking point, especially in electric the electric vehicle space is, you know, with future policy and future leadership, what’s it going to look like? The conversation is definitely not going anywhere. It may change and evolve, but I think we’re just on the very beginning of the path. Being at the start of it is really exciting and a really cool opportunity.
Another cool aspect of it is that nobody in this industry is an expert, really, because it’s so new. So I’ll be in the room with people who are significantly more senior than me, but they’re just as clueless as I am. We’re all kind of just figuring it out together. And that’s a really unique opportunity as well, because I can continue to learn and grow and apply all the things I’ve learned from college and beyond. I hope to just continue to grow in this industry and become an industry leader in the state of Georgia, that’s where I see myself going next.
How do you feel about being named a one of the 35 women under 35 to know?
Oh, it’s really cool! It’s actually, technically my second time being selected. I don’t know how it happened again. Honestly, I was really shocked the first time, but I think I was even more shocked the second time. It’s really humbling.
If you look at the other names of the women on that list, there are just so many inspiring names on there, and so many people who are doing really cool things. And it can be easy to forget that maybe you’re also doing cool things. So it was a nice little reminder.
The edition they announced it in was centered on Women’s History Month, and that recognition is really important, because I think it’s very common for women to forget the impact of everything that they do. Or we’re just statistically less likely to give ourselves kudos. And it’s really great to inspire others and also be reminded to continue inspiring myself. Because I’m well under 35 so I’ve still got a ways to go. I’m excited to see what comes out of it, and what the future has to hold.
Any parting thoughts?
I’ve run into Dr Woodson and everybody from my master’s committee a few times, because I go back to visit UGA way more than I probably should. But it’s so great to be able to speak to some of the value that came out my time there, and from Dr. Woodson being willing to give me the opportunity to work with him. I have so much appreciation and gratitude for the COBIA lab and the College of Engineering and everybody involved.