The International Boundary and Water Commission: Serving the Nation and Society in Minority, Veteran and Disability Recruitment in Water Management, Engineering and Environmental Issues for Today and Tomorrow.

Mark Howe, Environmental Management Division, US State Dept, International Boundary and Water Commission

The United States Section, International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC) have helped to promote internal and external hiring of individuals with disabilities and minorities for many of our positions at the Headquarters Office and our Field Offices across the U.S – Mexico borderlands. As part of our mission, we strive to hire individuals with education and experience in Hydrology, Environmental Sciences, Business Administration, Engineering skills and non-technical skills. These positions are the dominant science and engineering careers we have at the USIBWC, but many other positions include those that are predominantly field related in scope. The USIBWC uses position outreaches by governmental websites but also through individuals in our various Departments at schools, universities and one on one contact for dissemination of upcoming hiring. We look to recruit more people with disabilities, veterans, minorities and others who are not in the regular workforce due to many of these factors. We have hired people with disabilities but would like to have more and are compliant with reasonable access for several of our employees and have a high standard of Equal Opportunity for positions.

The Commission is a leader in working with Mexico on international issues dealing with the border, water management, the people and communities along it. Our area of work ranges from the Pacific Ocean at San Diego, California to El Paso, Texas and ending at the Gulf of Mexico near Brownsville, Texas. We strive to be environmentally active in what we do for ourselves and future generations in all forms of government management and our management of finite resources.

A large portion of our employees are graduates of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) or come from other major universities and schools across the country. We have a wide range of minority employees and actively recruit for new individuals to join our staff. As part of our work here we work with other local, state and federal agencies on projects that require a highly trained skill set. As part of our employee expertise, several have disabilities in one form or another but this does not hinder them in their work but shows others how well they can do their job. A portion of my time is spent in helping students with disabilities to show them that they can secure a job in the Federal service after graduation. As part of this I work with our Equal Employment Officer on actively recruiting people to work for the USIBWC.

As our employee workforce retires or moves on, we look forward to hiring new employees in changing work capacities. We use various earth sciences, geosciences and engineering in our work each day. Many of the employees actively engage students at the universities in undergraduate and graduate levels of education. With this engagement, we are able to show students with or without a disability that working at the USIBWC and the Federal service is rewarding and productive and will continue in the future.

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The International Boundary and Water Commission: Serving the Nation and Society in Minority, Veteran and Disability Recruitment in Water Management, Engineering and Environmental Issues for Today and Tomorrow. (Acrobat (PDF) 15kB Feb9 14)