Geoffrey McQuilkin '87's inspired journey from Poly to Mono Lake

The story of Geoff McQuilkin ’87’s lifelong work begins 35 years ago at a school assembly at Poly.  Geoff was a fourth-grader listening to Stephen Cunha, who was teaching fifth grade at Poly at the time, give a presentation about Mono Lake and damage to its ecosystem caused by the diversion of the lake’s tributary streams 350 miles south to Los Angeles. “I still remember it striking me,” Geoff said. As a young student, he followed the issues involving the lake. Then in college, he volunteered and interned with the Mono Lake Committee, the non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the lake that Cunha had talked about that day to the Lower School. Today, Geoff serves as its executive director.

 

The Mono Lake Committee, whose membership includes more than 16,000 individuals, works in four areas: protection, restoration, education, and scientific research. Leading the organization through litigation and legislative work, Geoff appreciates the science-based, solution-oriented focus of what they do, as they try to find answers to the problems affecting Mono Lake. He enjoys being able to dive deep into the specific set of issues, he explained. Education and science programs, particularly the committee’s work to bring students from Los Angeles to Mono Lake to learn where their water comes from, are inspiring, he added.

 

It’s also rewarding work. Since joining the organization more than 25 years ago, Geoff has seen increased knowledge and visibility of the issues surrounding Mono Lake. Recently, the committee’s work made headlines, when it reached a stream restoration agreement with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, after “three years of working round the clock with our Mono Lake team,” Geoff said. “This wouldn’t have happened if the Mono Lake Committee wasn’t involved.” The agreement includes the DWP’s commitment to modernize Los Angeles Aqueduct infrastructure by constructing a $15 million outlet structure at Grant Lake Reservoir Dam. This will allow stream flow to mimic natural patterns and will enable natural stream processes to return and lead to restoration to the Mono Lake’s streams and streamside forests, birds, and wildlife, without reducing water exports to Los Angeles. The process for victories, such as this, can be long, and “then there is the implementation,” Geoff pointed out.

 

Geoff first visited the lake during his senior year at Poly. He and three classmates decided to backpack in Yosemite for their senior project. However, due to inhospitable weather conditions, they bailed on their plans to explore the national park and went to Mono Lake instead. His brief trip was enough to keep him interested through college. Although he attended college on the East Coast, he volunteered with the Committee, including participating in a bike ride from LA to the start of the aqueduct in Mono Lake. Riders carried with them water from the reflecting pool in front of the DWP building in Downtown Los Angeles back to the lake to show the need for a balanced water policy. After graduating from Harvard, with a degree in history of science, he took a six-month temporary job with the Committee in 1992. They still welcome interns every summer.

 

Thinking back on his journey from Poly to Mono Lake, Geoff advises that young people find things they are personally and passionately interested in and get involved. “In the non-profit, conversation world, you have to show up and see what happens,” he says, which echoes his experience, taking what he thought might be a short-term stint, and years later, leading the organization through milestone legislative resolutions.