Charmaine Bonifacio

Hello, I'm Charmaine Bonifacio. I love to learn. I'm a self-taught coder. I love data, maps and volunteering.

I am a life-long learner and self-taught when it comes to programming languages, which include R, Python, C#, FORTRAN, SQL, Shell scripting, VB.Net and VBA to name a few. While in university, I created and published The Canadian Climate Scraping Tool (CCDST) to help researchers collect data from Environment Canada in a more efficient manner. I've been creating simple tools used to automate procedures, which means more efficient data processing and analysis, while reducing errors.

I completed my Master of Science degree in Geography under Dr. Stefan Kienzle and his Hydrology/GIS/Modelling lab team at the University of Lethbridge in 2016. My research interest focused on modelling the impact of climate change in the Oldman Reservoir Watershed by coupling an agro-hydrological model with regional climate change scenarios. In addition, I focused on the rigorous testing of the Agricultural Research Catchments Unit (ACRU) model using the Klemeš hierarchical testing scheme for hydrological models. For a copy of my thesis, please check the University of Lethbridge institutional repository.

I received my Bachelor of Science degree in Geography with a concentration in Geographical Information Science (GIS) at the University of Lethbridge in 2013. I also completed a two-year Cooperative Education as part of my undergraduate degree with the Calgary Airport Authority. As part of a course project, I was able to develop and publish The Canadian Climate Data Scraping Tool (CCDST) with Dr. Chris Hugenholtz and Dr. Stefan Kienzle. Please check Academia.Edu or Research Gate for a copy of the journal article and the tool. During my time at the University of Lethbridge, I have had the priviledge of being an ABBY-NET summer school student in 2013 (Kananaskis, Alberta) and 2014 (Bavaria, Germany).

I've recently been exploring MOOCS to supplement my learning and development, focusing on database development, mastering R and Python, data analytics and visualisation, working towards Data Science. I’m also working on upgrading my GIS knowledge by learning from ESRI Training free MOOCs, learning more about ArcGIS Pro, and ArcGIS Online.

I lived in New South Wales, Australia and the Greater Toronto Area along with my family after emigrating from the Philippines in 2000. My family moved to southern Alberta in 2005, and we have called it home ever since. Since 2012, I have been actively involved in various student and community organizations around campus and the community in Lethbridge. I currently live and work in Calgary, Alberta after a brief stay in the Elk Valley region. Thank you.

For a detailed list of experiences, please kindly check out my LinkedIn page.

Check out my latest Harrison Assessment outcome.

CURRENT:

Lead, Environmental Data Management for Elk Valley Resources (EVR) - formerly Teck Coal division. I am responsible for the management of EVR Environmental Management System using Earthsoft EQuIS database. I lead a highly technical staff in managing various environmental monitoring data for all the active mine sites and projects within EVR. I manage our team to help prioritize workload, identify risks, conduct annual reviews, and conduct annual objective planning. My role is to ensure EVR can meet regulatory and corporate commitments and maintain the social license to operate. My responsibilities include being a courageous safety leader; implementing and supporting an Environmental Data Quality Improvement Plan and the establishment data management standards, workflows, and procedures to ensure the sustainability and integrity of the data management solutions. This includes leading the team to effectively manage, support, standardize data capture, reporting, audit data collection and data quality of the EQuIS database system. I currently manage a user base of over 400 to help train, provide solutions, and operational support during upgrade and migration. It is my responsibility to engage and interact with software vendors (including labs) to help build out new software solutions for EVR. I will continue to support the existing implementation and seek future enhancements of the EQuIS database.

PAST WORK EXPERIENCE:

Environmental Data Analyst for Teck Coal under Sustainable Development group. In the last 3 years before stepping into a leadership role, I managed the environmental monitoring data for TECK Coal by standardizing field data collection by implementing and developing EQuIS Collect program across operations and projects. I expanded feature updates on the Surfacewater template since 2021; implemented and developed the Groundwater template since 2022. I provided techinical guidance in the development of addtional collect templates for the Aquatic Sciences. I saw an increase of user/group administration, troubleshooting of Collect forms across the Elk Valley operations and projects. To overcome this challenge, I developed training materials and overview page for Collect users; additional training of Sample Planning Module users for Program/Data Managers in order to pre-populate EQuIS Collect forms with all the sampling and field parameters. I also developed a tracker system using Microsoft Forms and PowerAutomate flow in order to keep track of ongoing and increasing requests and issues related to the Collect program. This allowed me to discover recurring issues, trends and effectively resolve bug fixes with Earthsoft. Moreover, I assisted in importing, cleaning and validating environmental data, as well as continuous data from various loggers, using a combination of VBA, Python and R for data wrangling, analysis and visualisation. I collaborate with various teams, program managers and individuals to ensure governance with loading data into EQuIS. I also worked in multiple internal/external projects working with consultants to deal with massive data exports, resulting in millions of records across the valley using ETL workbooks, updating SQL queries to fit the project. During the team's transition, I led the team's discussions on how to move forward using SWOT and TOWS analysis. For the first time, the Teck Coal EQuiS team hosted the Earthsoft 2023 User Group Meeting in Calgary, where we presented the current challenges we've faced since its implementaion in 2013.

Modelling and Data Analyst for Government of Alberta (GOA), Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. I worked with irrigation, flow measurement, climate, crop, spatial, land use , and other data used in irrigation demand modelling using the Irrigation Demand Model (IDM3), ArcGIS, SQL Server Management, DDIT and Water Information Systems by Kisters (WISKI). I maintained and integrated the database with automated tools, scripts and applications that allowed for faster, more efficient data manipulation, analysis and interpretation. I lead the project to re-brand the 2018 Alberta Irrigation Information using R to utilise beautiful graphics.I also utilized R in reporting the analysis and data visualisation of 27 reservoirs within the South Saskatchewan River Basin in Alberta. I also developed an SQL Query Extractor application based in C# that is integrated with SQL Server Management application. I worked as a Modeller and GIS Analyst for MacDonald Hydrology Consulting Ltd using Raven and OSTRICH for hydrological modelling and utilising R data analysis and visualization.

Creating maps is a creative outlet. I have been creating maps for various publications, including theses and journal articles. For a sample, please check out 2018 Alberta Irrigation Information, Amber Zary, MA, Aimee Benoit, MA, Dr. Tom Johnston, and Dr. Geoffrey Hale.

For a list of projects, please check my Github page.

I am a life-long volunteer. My journey started quite late, when I was already in the university. I felt compelled to give back to the community in any way I can. For a full list of all my volunteer work, please check my LinkedIN profile under the Volunteer section.

With my involvement with various volunteer organizations, I've been fortunate enough to work on various projects, manage websites and social media platforms. For instance, I’ve mapped where the recipient schools in the Philippines for ReadWorld Foundation, managed data and used data analytics visualisation for District 42 Toastmasters and Coulee Commentators , designed and created Lethbridge International Film Festival websites, the ReadWorld Foundation. and Dr. Glenda Bonifacio's academic website.