Natalie practices a sustainable lifestyle: reusable shopping bags, Farmers' Market produce, etc. But after gaining responsibility for the hazardous waste in her graduate school lab, she realized sustainability was absent from her career: and took steps to change that.

In this video, learn how this first-generation grad student discovered green chemistry and how the goal of green chemistry is to lose the "green" entirely.

Natalie O'Neil, PhD., Program Manager for Higher Education, Beyond Benign Green Chemistry Education

Natalie earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University at Albany in 2017 after graduating with her Bachelor's degree in Forensic Chemistry from Western New England University.

During her graduate studies, she felt that the topics of sustainability, toxicology and environmental hazards were missing from the traditional graduate chemistry curriculum. Therefore, she pursued a one-year certification in Green Chemistry and Chemical Stewardship, attended the American Chemical Society (ACS) Green Chemistry & Sustainable Energy Summer School and became actively involved in the Network of Early-Career Sustainable Scientists and Engineers (NESSE) a global movement of young professionals working on or interested in solutions to today's most pressing sustainability challenges. She served at Utica College as both an adjunct and Assistant Professor of Chemistry from 2015-2019, introducing green chemistry to both major and non-major courses. She is passionate about teaching and empowering the next generation of scientists to use sustainable approaches through green chemistry.

Follow Dr. O'Neil on Twitter: @natjoneil