Ashley Collier is a CU Boulder alumna, having earned her PhD in Environmental Engineering in 2018. She began working with the Hannigan Lab in 2011, and her work focused on low-cost, air quality sensor quantification and research applications. She began leading air quality education and outreach (E&O) work with rural Colorado high school students in 2013. The focus was always on supporting student-driven research into local air quality issues and questions. The response to this E&O work from students and teachers alike was so positive that she and her team worked to build this project into a sustainable program including curriculum, university student mentors, and the tools (i.e., low-cost sir quality monitors). Over the three years she assisted with the program she was continually impressed with the high school students' ability to design unique and relevant projects and then conduct high-quality research around their questions.