DAVIS, Calif. -- No athlete at any level of any sport underestimates the importance of water. Its effects on muscle contractions, joint health, body temperature regulation, digestion and waste management – water is the most essential nutrient for life, let alone high-performance athletics.

To Clara MacLeod, a 2017 UC Davis graduate in environmental policy and planning and an All-Big West Conference distance runner, water has shaped her entire career path. This August, she completes her third year with Aquaya, a non-profit research organization that seeks to provide safe and sustainable drinking water to the developing world. Furthermore, MacLeod's interest in WASH – an acronym for water, sanitation and hygiene – has inspired her to pursue a master's degree in public health from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine this fall.

"This provides an opportunity to zoom out a little bit, and frame WASH and my experiences into the broader topic of public health," said MacLeod, who begins he coursework in September. "It's also a way for me to specialize a little bit more. I have looked at WASH pretty broadly, so this will be finding a niche. I don't know what that is yet, necessarily, but I'm hoping to specialize a little bit more in some way."

WASH has emerged as a key issue for such organizations as the World Health Organization, UNICEF, USAID, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and numerous other agencies and networks. It has become a focal point for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, while Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté devoted his fortune to found the One Drop Foundation. Those who enjoy their Newman's Own brand of salad dressing and microwave popcorn would be proud to know that a portion of those dollars go to WASH programs – in fact, the Newman's Own Foundation is among Aquaya's impressive list of benefactors.

MacLeod's interest in water actually dates back to her days at Albany High School in the Bay Area. Through a course in environmental science, she participated in her first internship with International Rivers, a non-profit group that takes a community-based approach in seeking alternatives to dams and other river projects. 

"The idea was that we would get more out of going to an internship during school hours than from sitting in class and listening to our teacher's lecture us," MacLeod said. "It was six hours a week, every Friday. It was all on us to do the outreach and find an organization that interests us. It was really good exposure, really early on."

Of course, an interest in environmental sciences made UC Davis a logical choice. MacLeod competed for the UC Davis from 2013 to 2017, earning All-Big West Conference honors in cross country, posting two top-three finishes in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in track & field, and graduating with a College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences Departmental Citation in EPAP. Her honors thesis was entitled "Groundwater Management in California's Central Valley: a Focus on Disadvantaged Communities."

Furthermore, MacLeod was (and is) a highly driven individual. For starters, she is bilingual, speaking fluent French Incredibly, she achieved those distance running accolades despite never having competed in cross country until her freshman as an Aggie. In fact, MacLeod was a soccer standout growing up – she even played alongside UC Davis alumnae Mari Pastor and Emma Tinloy on the club scene – and did not even run track & field until her senior year at AHS. Yet that did not stop her from setting three school records in that lone prep season, another feat that certainly informed her choice to attend UC Davis.

As if an honors academic career in EPAP and her training in cross country and track did not pose enough rigor, MacLeod sought an internship between her sophomore and junior years at UC Davis. She knew she was interested in some aspect of environmental science, and her previous opportunity with International Rivers gave her a head start when it came to water-related issues. Through a family friend, MacLeod learned of Aquaya, which had a satellite office in Larkspur. This provided her with her first taste of the WASH sector.

When school and cross country resumed in the fall, she kept her foot in the proverbial door: MacLeod remained with Aquaya as a part-time employee, working remotely while juggling her academic and athletic demands. "You know how crazy student-athlete schedules are, so it was not that many hours in a week," she said. "But it was still a good way to be in touch with them, and continue working on some of the projects that I started during the internship."

When MacLeod graduated in the spring of 2017, she did so with rather impeccable timing. Aquaya had recently secured a sizable grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, meaning employment opportunities were in the cards. (Oddly, this is not the first time she experienced such serendipity: when MacLeod joined International Rivers during her final year at AHS, the group had just received a grant from the MacArthur Foundation.)

MacLeod rejoined Aquaya's Marin County office that summer and worked a full year before a new opportunity came up: to work in the institute's main office in Nairobi, Kenya. She relocated to the capital city in August of 2018, becoming a research and program associate. "Honestly, that's what I wanted to do," said MacLeod. "I had interacted with our colleagues in Nairobi before, but it had always been on Skype. So it was nice to finally meet them in person. I did a lot of field work with them, so that was a good way to get to know your colleagues when you're traveling together. Overall, it has been a really positive experience."

Among Aquaya's major projects was monitoring water quality in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa. She and her colleagues studied the institutional frameworks of water service delivery and microbial water quality monitoring: resources, public health offices, laws and regulations, policies and procedures. Moving from a part-time to a full-time position allowed MacLeod to put her EPAP education to work, both in presenting case studies and conducting data analysis.

"The idea was to took at what the institutional drivers are," she said. "There are typically high rates of microbial contamination – E. coli and total coliforms. So we are looking at the institutional side and not just the financial component of it, where you can just say 'well, there's just no money for it.' There are also institutional aspects and institutional barriers. We look into the incentives, and to really dig deep into that, we're looking into who the stakeholders are – the ministry of health, the ministry of water."

Not only did her move to Nairobi allow MacLeod to meet her Aquaya co-workers in person, but it afforded her the chance to see the communities they served. After only a month in Africa, she found herself out in the field doing data collection with her co-workers. She had made short trips to Ghana and Uganda, but being in Kenya for a longer term gave her an entirely different perspective. 

"You can do data analysis from anywhere in the world once you have it, but actually being there and interacting with different people, it places more of a human component to it. You're learning about a different culture, there are language barriers, but it's a much more engaging way of interacting with people than just through a computer," said MacLeod.

"Even now, we have all of the data and the papers are coming out soon with the results, but I don't just see it as a paper. There is a whole other side of it. The paper looks clean, with data neatly presented and organized, but there's this whole other aspect that when you're doing the research, nobody else sees. It's important for me to keep in mind. It's much more than just data collection."
 

As a 2017 UC Davis graduate, MacLeod predated Aggie EVO, the athletics department's student-athlete outcomes program. However, her entire experience – finding a passion, participating in internships, building a network, and entering the world of work fully equipped – all but makes her a poster child for what EVO seeks to accomplish for current UC Davis student-athletes. Nor surprising, her experience as an athlete helped inform the future she continues to map out for herself.

"Time management was definitely a skill that I built while I was a student-athlete. Organization is very important, too, and that goes along with time management," MacLeod said. 

"What I really learned in running is goal-setting: short-term goals, medium-term goals, and long-term goals. Running is very process-oriented. We all have our dream goals for running – we want to run this time or make this meet – but running is a lot about the day-to-day grind, just getting out the door, even on Sundays when you don't really feel like it. Having more of a process-oriented mindset has been a big takeaway."

That process continues this fall as she leaves Aquaya and returns to school for her MPH degree. The LSHTM, part of the larger University College London, has on-campus research centers in WASH, so the seemingly tireless MacLeod will look to add that to her coursework. The school's international focus and team-oriented emphasis in peer-to-peer learning were also draws.

As for her future? A woman who picks up and moves almost 10,000 clearly places no boundaries on her horizons, so anything is possible. As MacLeod noted, she looks to stay in the WASH sector, but that could mean returning to Aquaya, working for a different NGO, or using her bilingual abilities to help merge French and English research efforts. "They operate in silos, so I'd like to find a way to bridge that gap," she said.

Wherever she goes, MacLeod will certainly heed the advice she would offer to the younger version of herself, and to the current Aggies looking to prepare themselves for the world of work: follow the lead of mentors and role models. As a UC Davis undergraduate, she recalls a PhD student who served as her undergraduate thesis advisor. "Having a role model, especially as a woman in research, was very key," she said. Furthermore, MacLeod says, her Aquaya supervisors have set examples for her to follow on her career path.

Finally, the process-oriented thinking and the work ethic that runs through many student-athletes has propelled MacLeod in her own career, and will do the same for her Aggie successors. 

"We all work tasks that don't necessarily inspire us in every aspect of our day, they're something we just have to do," she said. "It's about thinking how this task will help you achieve your goals. No work is wasted. Bring passion into whatever you do."

ABOUT UC DAVIS:
With the addition of equestrian and women's beach volleyball in 2018, more than 700 student-athletes represent the fifth-ranked public school in the nation on one of 25 intercollegiate athletics teams.

UC Davis, a national leader in Title IX gender equity and leadership, is centrally located between San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, and the Napa Valley; and offers an unrivaled student-athlete experience that features the ideal combination of elite academics, Division I athletics and personal growth.

Ranked annually in the top 10 in diversity and students' social mobility, UC Davis is uncommonly committed to preparing student-athletes for life after graduation with Aggie EVO — an innovative student-athlete outcomes program that helps young women and men develop passions, gain real-world experience, and enjoy a successful launch to full-time employment or graduate school. Through Aggie EVO, Intercollegiate Athletics provides unmatched resources and a vast network of working professionals to ensure post-graduation success for its student-athletes.