Professional Work | Abigailtekiela

Five in Five

In just five minutes, you can make a difference. Five in Five is a presentation concept I developed to quickly communicate to the public things that they can do to impact water quality. It is designed to be simple and straight forward; with the idea that these 5 actions only take 5 minutes to complete. Ideally, the presentation would only take 5 minutes to present, but could also be expanded depending on the audience. I envision this presentation being given before a larger conversation about water quality impacts, or as a general PSA. The presentation comes to a close and invites the audience to visit the presenting organizations website to learn more about specific programs and events. Below each slide are my speaker notes, to provide greater verbal context, without overwhelming the viewer. Click the slide to read the full speaker notes.

De-icing road salts flow into our waterways through runoff, and once in the environment, can negatively impact the health of aquatic plants and animals, surface vegetation, soil, and water quality overall.

A 2008 study found that around 30% of the salt applied to the roads in the Twin Cities makes its way to the Mississippi River. Which suggests that the remaining 70% is either blown away, transported into ground water, or stays within the soil, lakes, or wetlands. (Minnesota Storm Water Manual)

All it takes is 5 minutes.
Start by decreasing your salt use- especially when its no longer effective. Salts become chemically infective around 15 degree Fahrenheit. In 5 minutes, take note of the weather, and anticipate how much salt will really be effective.
Take 5 minutes to sweep up any excess salt and return it to your salt container. Not only does this decrease the risk of salt entering runoff, its also a cost-saver.
A great alternative to salt is a brine solution or 50/50 salt and sand mix. In 5 minutes, you can create a salt and sand mixture.

Clean Lakes Alliance Lake Guide 2023, pg. 83

Clean Lakes Alliance Lake Guide 2023, pg. 85

Path of Travel Map by Abby Tekiela (2023)

Clean Lakes Alliance Lake Guide 2023, pg. 83

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Lake Guide 2023

The Clean Lakes Alliance annual Lake Guide highlights the people, places, and projects within the Yahara watershed; and provides information about the people, businesses, and culture of the area. For this project, I created two maps. The first was used as a base map for a guide of local attractions around Lake Mendota and Monona. The second map was created to provide visual and geographic context of a accompanying story. Links to the full guide are embedded. Both maps were created using ArcGIS Pro and Adobe InDesign.

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Score Your Impact

The Score Your Impact program was one of the first projects I worked on as an intern for the Madison-based nonprofit Clean Lakes Alliance. This project started as an idea, and with my work on the brochure, turned into a full-blown pilot program by the end of the summer. I engaged with the full-time Watershed Engagement staff through several rounds of feedback to create this final product. The goal of the program is to engage the public with actions that directly impact the lakes, such as preventing leaves from entering municipal drainage, reducing or eliminating salt use, redirecting downspouts and installing rain barrels, and creating home rain gardens. This brochure was initially created in Canva, and later finalized in Adobe InDesign.

ArcGIS StoryMap

ArcGIS StoryMaps by ESRI is a web-based application that combines narrative storytelling with maps and images to seamlessly display all kinds of information. In this case, I pitched the idea of creating a StoryMap to visually recap the impact of Clean Lakes Alliance volunteerism in 2022. To view the whole story, scroll through the embedded window, or click the link icon to open the story in a new tab. This StoryMap was created using ArcGIS Online.

Flyer Templates

While working for Clean Lakes Alliance, I created these flyer templates to digitally advertise events and opportunities. Flyers were distributed to our various project and volunteer partners, and were made to be fully customizable. My built upon the organizations existing branding to create visually pleasing and consistent designs. These flyers were created in Canva.