From Tulane's Fungal Labs to the EPA: Peter Tellez Finds His Path in Environmental Science

Dr. Peter Tellez didn't grow up dreaming of a career in environmental science. He grew up wanting to be an artist.

Today, Tellez is an alumnus of Tulane's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB), working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where he splits his time between hazardous air pollutant issues and managing federal grants for California communities and tribal nations. His path to get there wound through community college, a chance flyer on a campus wall, and a shy kid's transformation into someone who now leads community meetings and delivers public risk communication for a living.

Tellez, originally from Los Angeles, wasn't always set on science. "I was never really a science-based person. I was really into art," he said, describing a childhood and young adulthood spent drawing. At one point, he dropped out of school altogether and worked in retail before eventually returning.
His first attempt at reconnecting with academics included a botany course that, in his words, "really just blew my mind." Still, it took a second return to school for things to click. Weighing whether to pursue biology, chemistry, or physics, he ruled out chemistry quickly and found himself hooked once he got into an introductory biology course.

The real turning point came from a flyer he spotted on his way to the library, offering paid summer research in the tropics. He couldn't pass it up. That opportunity connected him with his undergraduate research advisor, who brought him to Costa Rica for a research stint, then a second the following year. His advisor was the one who first planted the idea of a PhD.
While conducting research on ants in Costa Rica, Tellez realized his real interests were in plants and fungi. Searching Google Scholar for researchers studying the two, he came across the work of Tulane professor Sunshine Van Bael and reached out. "I didn't even know Tulane existed," he said. After an interview, he was in.

Tellez earned his PhD in Ecology at Tulane, focused on fungi that live inside leaf tissue, and joined Van Bael's lab as one of her earliest graduate students, while the lab was still taking shape. He described the experience as close-knit, recalling shared meals at Van Bael's house and a strong sense of mentorship that extended into the undergraduates he trained.

One memory in particular stuck with him: an undergraduate researcher who joined the lab with no prior experience and, within a couple of years, was directing other undergraduates and answering their technical questions herself. "I was really proud of her," Tellez said.

After completing his PhD, Tellez stayed on at Tulane for a year, teaching introductory biology and a mycology lab course, where he had students sketch fungi they observed under the microscope in dedicated sketchbooks, a practice he said had a noticeably positive effect on the class.

Before moving to New Orleans at 26 for his PhD, Tellez had never lived outside Los Angeles. He credits his time at Tulane, and the travel and community engagement that came with it in Costa Rica and Panama, with reshaping how he related to people.

"I was able to come out of my shell and talk to people, talk about their concerns," he said of that period, describing himself before Tulane as shy and solitary. Public speaking at Tulane and at academic conferences, combined with what he called the "liveliness" of the city itself, pushed him to become more comfortable expressing himself, a shift he says shows up directly in his current work doing risk communication with communities around environmental hazards.

Tellez's move to the EPA came out of the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, which upended his teaching position. A colleague and friend from Tulane who had landed at the EPA mentioned the agency needed people with a plant biology background. Tellez applied and was hired that same year.

He spent three years in Washington, D.C., in the EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs. "I moved to DC, Washington, DC, and I worked at the EPA there in the Office of Pesticide Programs, doing risk assessments, looking at the effects of pesticides on plants and animals," he said of that role.

After leaving the EPA for about a year, Tellez returned to the agency in a new role based near San Francisco, working for EPA Region 9, the Pacific Southwest region. He has held that position for two years.

Today, Tellez's job is split between two responsibilities. Half of his time is spent on hazardous air pollutants. "These are pollutants or chemicals that might cause cancer or some other health effects," he explained, serving as a liaison between EPA headquarters and the states, local agencies and tribes within his region. The other half is spent as a project officer managing federal grants awarded to local air districts and tribal nations working to reduce pollution.

His day-to-day work includes regular meetings with state agencies such as the California Air Resources Board to review grant progress, as well as direct engagement with AB 617 communities, California neighborhoods identified as facing significant air pollution burdens. He also fields public inquiries about local air quality concerns and connects residents with the appropriate federal or state contacts.

Tellez also works directly with roughly five or six tribal nations across California on grant-funded projects, including efforts to replace diesel and gas-powered equipment with electric alternatives and to purchase land for restoration that can help capture greenhouse gas emissions.

Among the work Tellez has been part of at EPA Region 9, one project stands out. His team supported a nonprofit in Marin City, led by a single community member, in securing a $500,000 EPA award to build out an air pollution monitoring network. Tellez helped connect her with contractors to install roughly 20 air toxicity monitors throughout the community, work that is now nearing completion with the goal of giving Marin City residents ongoing access to local air quality data they previously lacked.

Tellez's early love of art never fully left his scientific work. During graduate school, a course in Costa Rica introduced him to documenting research with a camera, and he became an amateur photographer of microscopic fungi, using the images in his presentations. These days, his artistic interest has shifted toward insects, drawing insect anatomy as well as plants and flowers.

Reflecting on his own winding route through community college, an undergraduate research trip he almost missed, and a graduate program he found through a Google Scholar search, Tellez had one piece of advice above all for students considering a similar path: find a mentor. He described looking for someone who takes an interest not just in a student's science, but in them as a person, pointing to his own relationships with Van Bael and his labmates as an example of the kind of support that helped him succeed.

Tellez said he misses fieldwork and hopes to eventually return to more hands-on science, potentially with an agency like the National Park Service or U.S. Forest Service. He is also pursuing opportunities to teach at community colleges, a setting he has personal ties to as a community college alumnus himself, with the goal of making that experience a positive one for students moving toward careers in science.

Looking back on his time at Tulane, Tellez credited his advisor and now EEB department head, Sunshine Van Bael, along with his labmates, for shaping both his career and his confidence. "She's an amazing person to me," he said of Van Bael. Of his labmates, he said simply that they "just made my time into landing... fun."