About Chris
Chris DiGiulio started out in this work as an impacted resident along the Mariner East Pipeline Project. This led her to co-founding Upper Uwchlan Residents for Safety and creating P.K. Ditty Media, an independent media outlet committed to documenting and reporting on gas and oil infrastructure violations to public health and safety, including Mariner East Pipeline and fracking infrastructure. Chris (PK) holds a Biology-Chemistry degree from Lock Haven University. She has previously worked as a civilian federal employee and contractor for the Department of Defense as an Analytical Chemist. She began in the occupational health/preventative medicine division (USACHPPM) at the Edgewood Area of Aberdeen Proving Grounds, where she became experienced with EPA sampling and analytical test methods, such as EPA drinking water methods. Chris then was offered an opportunity to work at the Naval Research Lab (NRL) in Washington DC, where she entered into the world of research and development. Her career remained focused on R&D for chemical sensors and remote real-time sensing in such areas as submarine air quality. She also analyzed jet fuels for the Navy.
After NRL, she ended up taking a contracting position leading to federal employment at Fort Belvoir, VA at Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) where she focused on explosives detection (IED) for the Iraq and Afghanistan war, and supported other remote sensing technologies projects (FLIR, hyperspectral, ground penetrating radar or GPR) as an Analytical Chemist. She also focused heavily on modification and validation of existing EPA environmental sampling and analytical test methods in order to meet specific requirements of her mission. Her work for the DoD,especially at NVESD, equipped her with military field testing/field work, bureaucratic policy, and defense contract management experience which has helped prepare her for her new focus, watch dogging and investigating environmental crimes using forensic techniques. SHe is also a certified Thermographer in FLIR Optical Gas Imaging. In her current position as Director of Environmental Science (and Investigations) for Physicians for Social Responsibility of Pennsylvania, Chris investigates harms of industry using forensic investigation techniques, documents the behaviors of the industry, educates communities, and advocates for the health and safety of residents who are being harmed by the resource extraction industry.