Jessica Humes, environmental compliance supervisor for the Imperial Irrigation District, is pictured at the Salton Sea at the site of a groundwater well, an environmental mitigation project in its early phases meant to tap into groundwater aquifers at the sea to provide a new source of water to support vegetation grown on exposed playa. Humes leads IID’s environmental mitigation efforts at the sea. Image provided by IID.

In Jessica Humes’ childhood, her parents once took her to visit the Salton Sea where she found a pumice rock that washed ashore. “The idea that rocks could float had me picking up rocks everywhere we went,” she said.

That day sparked an interest in the sciences that would lead her back to the Valley after university and into a career that would place her at the forefront of addressing environmental issues at the sea.

There are likely very few people

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Maribel Padilla, founder of the Brown Bag Coalition, places a cool cloth on the neck of a man who sought help from the Coalition during one of its water run stops to support the homeless in the city of Calexico, California, as temperatures on that day reached nearly 120 degrees. Photo by Darren Simon

On a sweltering afternoon as temperatures in Calexico, California topped 118 degrees, a group of homeless sought shelter under trees just off Third Street and Paulin Avenue in the city’s busy downtown a couple of blocks from the border.

They knew to be there around 5 p.m. That’s when a familiar white van from the Brown Bag Coalition (Coalition) would arrive to provide welcome relief – water and Gatorade, popsicles, washcloths dipped in cold water and other supplies.

When the van arrived, Brown Bag Coalition founder Maribel Padilla and her volunteer that day, Jose

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Professor Cesar Guzman (backrow, far left), who teaches citizenship classes at Imperial Valley College and in the community, stands with a group of students in a class he taught at the First United Methodist Church in El Centro in this 2020 photo. Photo courtesy of Cesar Guzman

Fifteen thousand.

That’s how many people long-time Imperial Valley educator Cesar Guzman has helped become U.S. citizens through his work teaching citizenship classes offered as part of an Imperial Valley College (IVC) program and his volunteer work in the community.

Today, at age 78, though retired as a full-time educator, he still works part-time for the college program, volunteers in the community, and serves on a local school board in the city of Brawley, something he has done for nearly half a century.

He’s not about to stop yet. He enjoys it all too much to stop, especially when it comes to

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