We're protecting and enhancing America's National Park System for present and future generations.
National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), the nation’s oldest and largest national parks nonprofit advocate, has an exciting opportunity for a Southeast Clean Air Data Intern.
The intern will work directly with NPCA’s Southeast Regional Director and the Senior Air and Climate Manager on data and research projects that are crucial to our work to protect air quality in national parks through the second and third rounds of the Regional Haze Rule. The intern will support updating our data sets and corresponding materials to inform our work and strategic direction. The intern will learn about the intricacies of the National Emissions Inventory datasets and become familiar with the air pollution sources and the level of emissions in the country as they affect national parks. The intern will learn how these sources from industrial sectors such as oil and gas, electricity generation (coal plants), among others, are affecting the national parks. A portion of the intern’s work will focus specifically on regions of the U.S., like the Southeast, that are experiencing rapid increases in air pollution as old coal plants are kept online to meet new, rapid growth in energy demand from AI and data centers. The intern will help analyze this data and produce usable materials and information for NPCA’s campaigns to protect air quality in parks.
Location: Remote
Schedule: Part-time; up to 20 hours per week
Compensation: $23.000-$26.00/ hour
Duration: 06/01/2026-08/31/2026
Tangible deliverables that will be achieved:
-Development and organization of a nationwide air pollution emissions dataset for point sources using the most recent National Emissions Inventory (NEI 2023).
-Creation of easily accessible query systems to allow access to specific emissions data as needed.
-Formatting the data for the calculation of the impact of each pollution source on national parks and wilderness areas using the Q/d metric.
-Updates to the NPCA’s interactive map with new Q/d data.
-Analysis of the growth of energy demand and corresponding air pollution increases from park-harming sources in various regions of the U.S., including the Southeast.
-Preparation of an analysis for NPCA’s Southeast region, including:
- Maps
- Identification of industrial sources impacting Class I areas in the Southeast region
- Rankings of the worst polluting sources and the most impacted Class I areas in the Southeast region
Preferred Qualifications:
- Graduate student (within one year of graduation) with STEM Discipline
- Data processing in Microsoft Excel, R, or Python
- ArcGIS Desktop/Pro and ArcGIS Online
- Writing skills
Physical Effort and Dexterity: While performing the duties of the job, the employee is typically required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools or controls; reach with hands and arms; climb stairs; talk or hear. The employee may lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by the job may include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Employer’s Rights: NPCA reserves the right to revise this position description at any time. The duties listed above are intended only as illustrations of the various types of work that may be performed. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related, or a logical assignment to the position. The job description does not constitute an employment agreement between NPCA and employee and is subject to change by NPCA as the needs of NPCA and requirements of the job change. The above is not an exhaustive list of the requirements for the position.
