2023 Career Networking Panelists

Monday, 13 November 2023, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM PT

Panelists 

 Judith S. Weis

Judith is a  (retired) academic estuarine biologist with a strong continued interest and involvement in environmental policy issues and women in science.

Joel Hoffman

Joel a Supervisory Biologist in the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Research and Development and conduct research to support EPA's mission. His expertise includes assessing coastal ecosystem services; using ecological tracers to study water quality, characterize aquatic food webs, and model contaminant bioaccumulation; and developing ecosystem condition and biodiversity assessments.

Gulnihal Ozbay

Gulnihal is an Aquatic Science Faculty in Delaware State University. They serve as the director for ONE Health Lab and also Center for Integrated Biological and Environmental Research with their primary research focusing on oyster restoration, relationships between oyster aquaculture and aquatic ecology, blue crab population assessments, and microbial monitoring in and around oyster aquaculture and oyster reefs. Gulnihal offers Student Experiential Learning Program in Belize to the students in STEM disciplines, primarily life sciences students.

Anna Armitage

Anna is a professor of marine biology at Texas A&M University at Galveston. She studies coastal wetland ecology and restoration, and teaches graduate and undergraduate classes on coastal ecology and human impacts on marine ecosystems.

David Gillett

David a benthic ecologist at regional government agency in southern California. His research is focused on assessing human impacts on the coastal zone (benthic indices, causal assessment, monitoring programs) from the slope through the estuaries and up into the watershed.

Amanda Babson

Amanda works to help coastal parks adapt to climate change.

Geno Olmi

In June 2023 Geno retired from a 27-year career with NOAA where he worked on various topics including environmental characterizations, coastal and ocean observing, coastal resilience, and coastal management - all working closely with university, state and federal partners. Prior to NOAA, Geno worked on crab and shrimp recruitment and habitat utilization.

Beth Darrow

Beth the Chief Scientist at Bald Head Island Conservancy, a small conservation nonprofit organization on a barrier island in southeastern North Carolina. She leads environmental and wildlife monitoring for the Village of Bald Head Island, supervise sea turtle protection program, lead research projects and collaborations on barrier island science & sustainability.

Ben Belgrad

Ben is a quantitative ecologist and physiologist who studies animal responses to major environmental perturbations (climate change, habitat destruction, invasive species, pollution) from the individual to community level. He also has a broad background in individual variation and its consequences for restoration and aquaculture.

Tricia Thibodeau

Tricia is an Assistant Professor of Marine Science at the University of New England, which is a private R2 institution in Maine. She recently went through the intense academic job search and negotiation process so is happy to provide insight and guidance for anyone trying to navigate getting a job in academia.

Emily Rivest

Emily is a faculty member at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, where ahe mentor graduate students, conduct research, and teach at the graduate level. Her expertise is in marine physiological ecology and ocean acidification science. Their group uses a variety of approaches to understand how future environmental change impacts marine invertebrates and how these animals, through their physiology, shape the environment around them.

Dan Killam

Dan is an environmental scientist at a nonprofit investigating water quality in the San Francisco Bay.

Kim de Mutsert

Kim is an Associate Professor at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her job consists of research in the field of fish ecology and ecosystem modeling, teaching, and service such as serving on committees inside and outside the university.

Mike Allen

Mike is the Associate Director for Research and Administration at Maryland Sea Grant which focused on coastal and estuarine research in Maryland's Chesapeake and coastal bays. He leads research and fellowship competitions, an undergraduate Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, proposal development and project oversight, and our programming and administrative teams.

Jen Bowen

Jen is an associate professor at Northeastern University's department of Marine and Environmental Science where she study microbial ecology and biogeochemistry of coastal systems, primarily salt marshes.

Courtney Schmidt

Courtney is the Staff Scientist with the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program, part of the National Estuary Program administered by the EPA through the Clean Water Act. She manage scientific projects and programs and coordinate with partners from all facets of environmental science who strive for clean water and habitat for all who work, live and play in our region (Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts).

Dr. Leanna Heffner

Dr. Heffner is the director for an organization that represents a collective partnership of several government agencies, Tribal organizations, conservation nonprofits, and university researchers. The focus of our partnership is to collaborate on conservation, climate change, and land/resource management issues across Alaska and northwest Canada, with a particular focus on supporting Indigenous-led conservation and fostering US-Canada cross-border connections. Her job entails developing & implementing new collaborations and projects, helping to foster large & diverse networks of individuals/orgs working in this space, organizing various convenings, writing grants & fundraising, decolonizing science & natural resource management, developing and teaching curriculum, and helping to foster the next generation of leaders in this space (particularly Indigenous youth).

William "Chesley" Vervaeke

Chesley is a Coastal Ecologist for NPS' Inventory and Monitoring Division, specifically Southeast Coast Inventory and Monitoring Network. Coastal Ecologist for this group is in runs the wetland elevation change and shoreline change protocols. Prior to joining NPS, he worked at USGS' Wetlands and Aquatic Research Center for 17 years focusing primarily on wetland elevation change.

Fredrika Moser

Fredrika is the Director of Maryland Sea Grant. The Sea Grant network is located in all the coastal and Great Lake states and supports research, education and outreach on coastal and marine issues.

Kristi Arend

Kristi is a biologist for the US Bureau of Reclamation's Bay-Delta Office in Sacramento, CA, where she provides technical support for ensuring regulatory compliance requirements associated with the Central Valley Project (CVP) water operations are met. Her responsibilities vary quite a bit, including assessing potential operations impacts to listed fish species, participating in structured decision-making related to management actions for improved habitat, and collaborating on research and monitoring to understand short- and long-term fish population and ecosystem responses to CVP operations, management actions, and environmental change.

Kendall Valentine

Kendall is a coastal ecogeomorphologist and assistant professor at the University of Washington Oceanography who studies how biology, geology, and physics interact to drive landscape change. They use field work and numerical modeling in my work. I did my PhD at LSU and my MS at Boston College.

Jill Carr

Jill is the Coastal Data Scientist at the MassBays National Estuary Partnership and Researcher at UMass Boston. She specializes in leading coastal mapping and monitoring projects, with a focus on water quality and seagrasses. Jill also provides technical assistance and data tools to build scientific capacity in the region.

Brita Jessen

Brita is the Interdisciplinary Research & Partnerships Lead with the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium. She work with researchers, students, and partners in the region to build collaborative teams and facilitate the transfer of scientific information to coastal decision-making and stakeholder needs. Brita also serves on national and local DEIJA committees and continually learn how to build equity and inclusion in coastal research.

Antonietta Quigg

Antonietta serves as the senior associate vice president for Research and Graduate Studies at Texas A&M University at Galveston. She also has a research program which examines the impact of various pollutants on the base of food webs, particularly on phytoplankton.

Kristin Wilson Grimes

Kristin is a Research Associate Professor at the University of the Virgin Islands, a Historically Black College and University located in the US Virgin Islands. She teaches in the Masters of Marine & Environmental Science Program, conduct research on mangrove ecosystems, and run community education and outreach programs.

M Dennis Hanisak

Dennis' research is focused on the (1) biology and ecology of marine plants, particularly macroalgae (seaweeds) and seagrasses, and (2) continuous water quality monitoring. He has conducted research in the Indian River Lagoon and in other parts of Florida, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean.

Chris Madden

Chris' primary activities are designing and conducting hypothesis-driven research on coastal ecosystems with the goal of understanding human impacts and developing management strategies.

Jamie Steichen

Jamie is in her 3rd year as an Instructional Assistant Professor in Marine Biology at Texas A&M University at Galveston. She is passionate about educating and providing resources for students to help them do well during their time in college and in their careers post graduation. Her research is focused on phytoplankton ecology and she is also involved in developing educational tools to facilitate marine science education at the primary/secondary levels as well.

Bob Johnston

Dr. Bob Johnston is a retired civil servant who worked as a senior scientist at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific, where he coordinated environmental studies for the Navy and specialized in conducting ecological risk assessments. Currently, Dr. Johnston is the owner of Applied Ecological Solutions, a veteran-owned small business dedicated to solving environmental problems for discerning clients.

Charles Schutte

Charles is an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Science at Rowan University where he teaches field methods and oceanography courses. He also does research focused on understanding how nutrients and greenhouse gases cycle through aquatic environments and how these cycles are likely to shift in response to global environmental alterations like climate change and sea-level rise.

Kristy Lewis

Kristy is an Assistant Professor of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography. She specializes in food web modeling, fish ecology, and transdisciplinary oceanography.

Elsa Schwartz

Elsa is the Senior Director for Restore America's Estuaries. She manages RAE’s national restoration program, is the lead for our federal awards, and oversees the planning and logistics of the National Summit. Prior to working for RAE, she worked in the San Juan Islands for the Samish Indian Nation, working on a variety of projects from salmon restoration to shorelines stabilization.

Chanda Littles

Chanda is the science lead for the Corps’ (Portland District) adaptive management and research under the Columbia Estuary Ecosystem Restoration Program. She coordinates with agency partners and area stakeholders to address key uncertainties and implement restoration projects in the Lower Columbia River. She also leads research initiatives to understand how to maximize potential habitat benefits of dredged material placement. Chanda's work falls under the purview of Corps Civil Works and Navigation mission areas and includes regular coordination with multidisciplinary teams of engineers, economists, planners, geologists, fish biologists, archeologists, and others.

Lisa Cox

Lisa Cox works for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality in Portland as their Toxics Reduction Analyst. Lisa manages and administers pollution prevention grants that she obtains from the EPA. She develops creative and effective projects and implements them with community partners such as Oregon Sea Grant and Beyond Benign.

Steven Litvin

Steven is a research scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute where he work with engineers to develop better tools to explore and understand the marine environment while also using traditional ecological approaches to understand the processes that shape them.

Julie Reichert-Nguyen

Julie is a Natural Resources Specialist with the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office and coordinates the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Climate Resiliency Workgroup. Her work focuses on assessing climate change effects on habitats and fisheries. She also works closely with partners to incorporate resilience-building strategies in their restoration and conservation efforts in connection with community benefits.

Darcy Peter

Darcy is the partnership coordinator for the Aleutian & Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea of Alaska. She spent the first 6 years of her career working as an environmental scientist, working with Alaska policy-makers, lawyers, Indigenous organizations, tribes, Alaska state & feds, and researchers to understand how to come together to combat climate change in Alaska, where small Indigenous communities are experiencing climate change at 3x the rate of the rest of the world. Since Darcy herself am Alaska Native, prioritizing the uplifting of Indigenous Elders, youth, and community members' voices is of the utmost importance in everything she does.

Sara Grady

Senior Coastal Ecologist for Mass Audubon. Sara works to restore salt marshes and future salt marshes (e.g. coastal cranberry bogs), and is also a coastal and estuarine generalist who has worked in multiple habitats on restoration, monitoring, outreach, and citizen science.

Chris Katalinas

Chris Katalinas (he/him) is organized, diligent, and passionate about adult learning and the sustainable management of coastal resources. Chris is employed by Lynker to provide contracting services to the NOAA Office for Coastal Management, where he serves as the Learning Coordinator for the Margaret A. Davidson Graduate Fellowship program. In this role, he facilitates professional development and networking opportunities for up to 30 graduate fellows each cycle and is responsible for tracking major activities and milestones for this national program.

Briana Yancy

Briana Yancy is a 2023 Ohio Sea Grant Knauss Marine Policy Fellow. She works with NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) as part of their research to operations transition support team. She holds a master's degree in biology from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Her research interests are at the intersection of conservation and social sciences with a focus on coastal ecosystems. Her background also includes serving as a Co-Chair fo the Greater Baltimore Wilderness Coalition and time spent working for the U.S. EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program Office as their Diversity Workgroup Coordinator. In her free time she likes to make jewelry, kayak, and try new restaurants.

John Callaway

John Callaway is a Professor in the Department of Environmental Science at the University of San Francisco. His research focuses on wetland plant and soil ecology, restoration ecology, sediment processes, and potential impacts of sea-level rise. His recent work involves wetland carbon sequestration and wetland restoration in San Francisco Bay. From 2017-2020, he served as the Delta Lead Scientist for the Delta Stewardship Council, and he currently is on advisory panels for Everglades restoration and the incorporation of wetland ecosystems into California's efforts to reduce statewide carbon emissions. He also is an associate editor for Estuaries and Coasts and is the co-chair of CERF 2023.

Danielle Perry

Danielle Perry, PhD (she/her) is a coastal restoration ecologist with expertise in climate resilience and salt marsh restoration. Dr. Perry is a Marine Habitat Resource Specialist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Restoration Center based at the NOAA Fisheries Narragansett Lab in Rhode Island. She focuses on coastal habitat restoration providing technical assistance to non-profits, state, and municipal partners and underrepresented communities implementing coastal restoration and community resilience projects in southern New England. Other responsibilities of her positions include grant review, partnership building, and project development.

Archi Howlader

Archi Howlader currently works as an Engineering Tech at the New York Water Science Center, United States Geological Survey (USGS) on contract. His role at USGS involves conducting research to understand the impact of compound flooding rainfall, groundwater, and storm surge relationships using statistical approaches, as well as analyzing time series and geospatial/geophysical data. In addition to his work at USGS, he holds a Master's degree from Marine-Estuarine Environmental Sciences Graduate Program at the University of Maryland. Archie also did a NSF funded internship at Natural Hazard Mission, USGS, Woods Hole.

The Early Career Networking Event provides a space for those early in their careers to converse with one another and with folks who are already established in their careers. Attendees will be able to meet a variety of professionals spanning four broad career paths:

1. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and non-profits
2. Academia
3. Private industry
4. Government (federal and/or state) 

Overall, this event will provide an opportunity to meet others across various career stages and to build professional connections that may not have formed otherwise.

The event space will be delineated into the four career paths mentioned above and attendees will be able to spend as much time as they’d like in any of the sections. In each section, there will be multiple Featured Speakers (established career folks) stationed so that attendees can learn more about their positions and career paths.

RSVP