Featured Employee Vignette

Featured Employee: Tania Nanna
Location: Alexandria, LA
Employee Job Title: Cartographic Technician
Date: February 2008

From Earth Team Volunteer to NRCS Employee

Tania Nanna, originally from Curitiba, Southern Brazil, served as a Louisiana Earth Team Volunteer working at the NRCS State Office in Alexandria, La., from November 2005 until being hired as term employee in 2007. Shortly after earning her BA in English from Federal University of Paraná, in Curitiba, Tania moved to the United States, where she has been living for 19 years, earning an AS in Computer Programming from Cypress College in Cypress, CA, and a Master of Science Degree in Soil Science and Computer Science from North Dakota State University. Ms. Nanna was the first student at NDSU to earn a MS in both Soil Science and Computer Science. Her area of research involved soil nutrient management, GIS, and precision agriculture.

Tania moved to central Louisiana after graduating from NDSU. Tania says, “After moving to Louisiana, I immediately fell in love with the landscape, the pine trees, and the charming South.” Once settled in, she contacted Don Gohmert, then Louisiana State Conservationist, about working as a volunteer for the NRCS Earth Team. “I wanted to volunteer in an area that involved both my soils and computer/GIS skills,” Tania said.

After conversations with Jerry Daigle, State Soil Scientist, and Bob Capezza, GIS Specialist, within a week Tania started working with the state soils section as an Earth Team Volunteer. Her main duties included quality control of soil maps for SSURGO using GIS software and working on the Cameron-Creole watershed project (southwest Louisiana), digitizing water/land interfaces from ortho-imagery using various GIS tools. Tania was encouraged to develop new techniques to solve problems and complete tasks, which made the volunteer work very interesting and rewarding.

“Volunteering allowed me to apply my job experience and skills to help others while, at the same time, gave me the opportunity to meet other professionals at NRCS,” Tania states. “The Earth Team Program gave me practical insight into the importance of GIS technology for NRCS and how I can help as a professional in this organization,” she adds.

When the position of cartographic technician opened, this was Tania’s chance to be part of a team of inspiring professionals and, at the same time, use GIS, computers and her soil science knowledge and background skills to support the work that others accomplish. At present, Tania is working full-time assisting GIS specialist with various GIS projects and helping maintain and update the LA NRCS Web site. Recently she applied and was accepted as the Disability Employment Program Manager and is excited about serving in a capacity that allows her to reach out, encourage, and help recruit talented individuals with disabilities.

Ms. Nanna notes that her experience as an Earth Team Volunteer made her realize that the program allows the volunteer and agency a chance to “try each other on for size; and if the shoe fits”- Buy it!!