Department of Science, Math, & Engineering: Faculty

Audrey LaVallie, Science Instructor

Phone Extension: 1001
Email: alavallie@tm.edu
Office: Room 102
Office Hours: 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday

Audrey Navarre LaVallie- born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1955, attended University of Michigan and received B.S. in physical science with teaching certificate, completed second major in chemistry at Pan American University (branch of University of Texas) while teaching in Texas, and completed MS in Soils with major in soil chemistry at Texas A & M in 1996.

Academic interests include computer modeling of soil dynamic processes, environmental public health, wastewater and soil pollutants, renewable energy and promotion of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) components into the sciences.

While here at TMCC, I have taught Environmental Science, Chemistry 115, Chemistry 116, Chemistry 121, Chemistry 122, Physics 211, Physics 212, Biology 120, and Biology 121.

I currently enjoy working with students on several grants:

1. I have been grant director for the ND View Grant (part of America View) for two years, whose conference we hosted here at TMCC last summer on Aug. 9, 2007. As part of my duties I attended GIS instruction classes and trained high school teachers in GIS and mapping fundamentals while procuring GIS licenses for three local high schools.
2. I was the AEHAP 2006 director, in which four students and I collected paint samples and tested them through atomic absorption spectroscopy. Our study was selected by CDC (Centers for Disease Control) for poster presentation at the 2006 CDC conference in Atlanta in Dec. 2006.
3. I have been grant director of the NASA/USRA grant for the past two years, in which students have helped research physical science/remote sensing laboratories which I have put into curricula which will be published by the NASA/USRA team as a textbook for coursework. Curricula written by myself and other faculty at tribal colleges can be seen at the TRESTE (Tribal Earth Science and Technology Education) website at space.hsv.usra.edu. These modules are for use at all tribal colleges or for anyone who accesses the site.
4. Through the CDC grant which I administered in 2005, we have radon data and radon maps which I and several students have used to research radon parameters in high-radon residences, funded by an EPSCoR grant through NDSU. The students’ research was presented in a poster at the fall 2007 EPSCoR conference in Fargo. During this semester (fall 2007), two students funded through EPSCoR and myself are researching radon mitigation systems, which the students have started to construct on four residences on the reservation. This project will not only be termed a research project but a service learning project as well.
5. Stacie Laducer hosted an environmental health conference in fall 2007, at which I, Scott Hanson and Lyle Best as well as other professionals from the area presented our research findings. Also, Stacie and I are currently working on GIS certification in order to better be able to offer a nine-month GIS certificate here at TMCC for students.