2017 Beaches Conference | Speaker Bios

Susan Adamowicz
Susan C. Adamowicz has a doctorate in Biological Oceanography and has been working at the Rachel Carson NWR for over 13 years with over 25 years experience in salt marsh ecology, restoration and estuarine science. Projects at Rachel Carson NWR have focused on developing innovative restoration techniques and coordinating the region-wide Salt Marsh Integrity Assessment.

Robert Almeder

Jacob Aman
Jake oversees fisheries conservation and monitoring projects at the Wells Reserve. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Ecology from the University of Massachusetts and a Certificate of Graduate Study in Applied GIS from the University of Southern Maine. He lives in Wells, Maine with his family.
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Lisa Anderson
Lisa Anderson is a serious environmental enthusiast. When she’s not combing the beach or getting her hands dirty outdoors, she is often found volunteering for environmental projects and seeking new learning opportunities. As a former elementary educator, she was awarded “Teacher of the Year” in her second year of teaching. Coming from a family of five, she has three children of her own, if you include her husband. Currently, she is changing careers as she is determined to become involved with environmental studies.
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Ross Anthony
Ross Anthony is a graduate student pursuing his MS in Resource Economics and Policy at the University of Maine.
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Sue Baker
Sue Baker is the State Coordinator for the National Flood Insurance Program and she is employed by the Maine Dept. of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry. Sue has spent most of the last 22 years working in the Program, becoming the State Coordinator in 2008. She belongs to the Association of State Floodplain Managers, the largest professional group of floodplain managers in the country, and through them, she has been a nationally Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM) since 2000.

Jane Ballard
Jane Ballard is a current two-year NOAA Digital Coast fellow partnering with NERRA and focusing on how ecosystem service valuations can best inform land use and policy decisions. She has a Masters in Environmental Science and Management from the Bren School at UC Santa Barbra where she worked on an economic valuation of Southern California coastal wetlands. Jane also worked in the advanced planning department in the City of Goleta in CA, contributing to a Coastal Hazards Vulnerability & Fiscal Impact Report and the Local Coastal Plan.
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Adam Baukaus
Adam Baukaus has been involved in both marine research and education/outreach for 15+ years. He is currently a senior research associate at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, where he has the opportunity to perform a wide spectrum of basic and applied marine research. He is also the president of GOMMEA where he helps create opportunities to share exciting research and connect organizations across the region.

Bri Benvenuti
Bri Benvenuti is a recent graduate from the University of New Hampshire where she researched nesting adaptations and conservation management of tidal marsh nesting birds, specifically the Saltmarsh Sparrow. She works at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge.

Gregory Berman
Gregory A. Berman, PG, CFM, GISP is a coastal processes specialist for Woods Hole Sea Grant (WHSG) and the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension (CCCE) where he provides technical assistance on coastal geology topics: shoreline change, erosion control alternatives, potential effects of various human activities on coastal landforms, coastal flood plains, coastal hazards, hazard mitigation analyses, and dune restoration techniques. On-site visits typically address site-specific coastal processes/hazards, which are followed with unbiased, written technical alternatives analyses. He joined WHSG and CCCE after five years with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) where he worked on a variety of government projects focusing on environmental assessments and shoreline stabilization. This was preceded by six years with United States Geological Survey (USGS) offices in Florida and Hawaii where he performed analysis of coastal geology, habitat, and hydrology. He has over twenty years of diverse experience with surveying, interpreting, and reporting on coastal geology.
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Emily Bialowas
Emily Bialowas is a Master’s student at the University of New Hampshire in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment working on issues of coastal resilience and climate adaptation decision-making. She has a B.S. in Natural Resources from Cornell University.

Sue Bickford
Sue Bickford is the GIS/Natural Resource Specialist at the Wells Reserve and has been partnering with the Human-Environment Modeling Laboratory at Purdue University since 2014 to bring Soundscape Ecology studies to the National Estuarine Research Reserve System.
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Julie Boak
Harvard ’68. Playwrights Horizons Theater School ’95. Boston-born playwright and writer from New York ‘with sixty years of harbor-muds between my toes’. Her work-in-progress, NOTICE TO MARINERS: Notes On Navigating A Shore, explores her struggle to grasp sea level rise in heart, mind and maps close to her home on Eastern Long Island.

Gayle Bowness
Gayle Bowness has a B.S. in Marine Biology from Dalhousie University and a M.S. from Lesley University in Ecological Teaching and Learning. She has been working at Gulf of Maine Research Institute since 2005 where she has designed and delivered a variety of education programs, from watersheds to electricity efficiency and is now focused on sea level rise.
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Gabriela Bradt
Gabriela Bradt is a Fisheries Specialist for New Hampshire Sea Grant and UNH Cooperative Extension. She has a PhD in Zoology and experience working on a variety of different marine related topics. Most recently, her interests have shifted to working on marine debris related problems in the ocean and working to gain a better understanding of the extent of microplastic pollution in New Hampshire.

Molly Holmberg Brown
Molly Holmberg Brown created MollyMaps fifteen years ago, making custom maps for all kinds of clients. She has a PhD and MA in geography from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She has worked with several non-profits in Maine and NH over the past three years.
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Jon Budreski
As a Co-Founder of AirShark, Jon leads sales & business development. Jon, an FAA licensed pilot, has been part of the success of two solar startups during the last decade. Before that, Jon was entrenched in both water quality instrumentation and hydrology. A graduate of Colorado State University and Enterprise Airline Academy, Jon’s technical sales skills, aviation background and energy experience have come full circle in helping AirShark become a reality.
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David Cherry
David Cherry is a Project Manager with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s, Bureau of Land Resources. His experience includes six years of environmental regulation experience ranging from residential construction projects both in and out of the coastal sand dune system, subdivisions, and large commercial operations.

Morgan Close
Morgan Close just finished the 4th grade at Bagnall Elementary School in Groveland, MA. He is an actor, drummer and dancer. He has enjoyed working on the dune planting project the past two years and is excited to learn more ways to help the environment.

Charles Colgan
Dr. Charles Colgan is the Director of Research for the Center for the Blue Economy overseeing the conduct of research activities and serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics.

Christa Daniels
Christa Daniels is currently a Ph.D candidate (Fall 2017) whose research focus is helping municipalities use innovative engagement strategies to go from planning to implementation on climate adaptation goals. She is a past municipal planner with expertise in facilitating and implementing engagement strategies to increase political will and public support at the local level for projects. She has spoken frequently across the northeast on the issue.

William DeLong
William DeLong is with the US Department of Homeland Security – Office for Infrastructure Protection. He was the primary DHS leader for the Maine Climate Change Adaptation RRAP, which began in 2013.
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Laura Diemer
Laura Diemer is a Project Manager for FB Environmental Associates, an environmental consulting company that specializes in monitoring and managing the water quality of New England rivers and lakes. She currently helps manage the bacteria monitoring program for a number of NH and ME coastal communities (Ogunquit, Kittery, Rye, North Hampton, Salem). Laura received a BS in Environmental Science at UMaine, Orono and a MS in Soil & Water Resource Management at UNH.

Nathan Dill
Nate is a coastal engineer with expertise applying computer models to problems in the coastal environment. He has performed numerical modeling, and data collection and analyses of coastal processes to support environmental impact studies, hydraulic and hydrologic analyses, coastal flooding analyses, effluent discharge and mixing zone studies, sediment transport analyses, and design of coastal infrastructure. He has experience with a variety of hydrodynamic and wave models, is fluent in multiple programming languages and frequently utilizes high performance computing. Recently, Nate has been applying his knowledge of state-of-the-science modeling and statistical techniques to help various clients better understand their coastal flooding hazard. This work includes revisions to improve flood maps, real-time forecasting of hurricane storm surge and waves, and modeling studies to help clients assess their vulnerability to future coastal flooding with sea level rise. Nate studied Physics at Bowdoin College with the class of 2001 and received a M.S. in Civil Engineering from the Louisiana State University in 2007.
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John Duff
John Duff is an associate professor in School for the Environment at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He received his J.D. from Suffolk University Law School in Boston and his LL.M. from the Law and Marine Affairs Program at the University of Washington. He also holds degrees in Business (University of Lowell) and Journalism (University of Mississippi). Over the course of the last thirty years he has worked as a newspaper reporter; an attorney in private practice; served as general counsel to a nonprofit organization focusing on marine habitat protection issues; and, has directed the marine law research programs in Mississippi and Maine. Since 2004, he has engaged in teaching and research on issues of law, the environment, natural resource management, and communication.
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Jon Dykstra
Jon earned his doctorate in geology from Dartmouth College (’78) and has been working in the geologic and mapping applications of earth-observing satellite remote sensing for over 35 years. He spent his summers at Goose Rocks Beach and has now retired to Kennebunkport with his wife Connie.
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Alyson Eberhardt
Alyson Eberhardt is an Extension Specialist in Coastal Ecosystems with NH Sea Grant and UNH Cooperative Extension. She coordinates the Coastal Research Volunteer program which trains and coordinates volunteers to work on coastal research and monitoring projects. In addition, she works on projects that engage the community in maintaining and restoring healthy coastal ecosystems
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Chris Feurt

Werner Gilliam
Werner Gilliam is a Certified Floodplain Manager, Code Enforcement Officer and Professional Planner for the Town of Kennebunkport. His experience includes over 15 years of working in municipal permitting, enforcement, inspections and residential subdivision construction. Werner lives in Kennebunk with his family and enjoys camping and quality garage time with old jeeps.
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Kristen Grant
Kristen Grant’s work as Southern Maine Coastal Community Development extension associate with Maine Sea Grant and UM Cooperative Extension began in 1999. Since that time, she has coordinated the Southern Maine Beach Profile Monitoring Program and the Beaches Conference. Kristen’s 2016 sabbatical research focused on stakeholder engagement in community planning for flood defense.
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Pete Hanrahan

Rick Harbison
Rick Harbison is a planner and GIS Specialist at the Greater Portland Council of Governments. He works on a wide range of projects from transportation planning to more environmentally-focused projects such as planning for sea level rise and resiliency.
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Kirsten Howard
Kirsten Howard is a Coastal Resilience Specialist with the N.H. Department of Environmental Services Coastal Program. She provides technical assistance to coastal N.H. communities as they prepare to manage for a future with higher sea levels, more intense coastal storms, and more extreme precipitation events. Kirsten is also a member of the N.H. Coastal Adaptation Workgroup. Prior to joining the Coastal Program, Kirsten was a NOAA Coastal Management Fellow. She has also worked for the World Wildlife Fund and Meridian Institute. Following graduate school, Kirsten took a road trip around the United States to uncover and share stories of communities taking steps to become more resilient to climate change impacts. Kirsten received her M.S. in environmental policy from the University of Michigan and her B.A. in economics from Brown University. Kirsten enjoys cooking, volleyball, and running and lives in Portsmouth
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Ruth Indrick
Ruth Indrick is a project coordinator at the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust where she supports projects focused on water and restoration that target coastal ecosystems, fish passage, tidal restrictions, and water quality. She runs KELT’s volunteer water quality monitoring program. She has been involved with the Maine Coastal Observing Alliance since it started, and is currently coordinating outreach for the group.
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Shannon Jarbeau
Shannon Jarbeau is the Community Rating System (CRS) and Floodplain Coordinator for Barnstable County, MA through the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension and Woods Hole Sea Grant. She is a Certified Floodplain Manager® with a Master’s degree in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island. Shannon assists communities with basic floodplain technical assistance and participation in the CRS. The regional CRS program Shannon operates in Barnstable County has been recognized nationally, earning the Association of State Floodplain Manager’s 2017 James Lee Witt Local Award for Excellence in Floodplain Management. Prior to moving to Cape Cod, Shannon worked on CRS and flood insurance issues in Norfolk, VA with Wetlands Watch, a non-profit working on sea level rise adaptation and wetlands preservation.
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Stephen Jones
Stephen Jones’s main focuses of research are: 1) Escherichia coli ribotyping to identify sources of fecal contamination in surface waters; 2) microbial cycling of mercury in estuarine and marine environments; 3) impacts of toxic chemicals in the marine environment; and 4) stormwater-related pollution of estuarine waters. Stephen has many different projects related to these four topic areas that make up his research program.
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Willy Jones
As a sophomore at Kennebunk High School, I’ve worked to protect marine life since I was in first grade when I saw a bouquet of balloons floating where whales were feeding. I had a childhood “connection” with a whale while on a whale watch with the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation when I felt a whale looking at me while I looked at the whale. Throughout my life I have built a project to teach others about the threats to whales, including a homemade whale head with baleen and Jeffrey’s Ledge model. I have been lucky enough to work with the Blue Ocean Society as a Junior Intern when I was 9 and 10 years old and have been featured as a “Kid in Action” by the American Cetacean Society. Action for Nature in San Francisco California awarded me an International Eco Hero Award in 2011. I continue to take my homemade, kid-friendly project to camps, schools, libraries and other events where I can bring awareness to the threats facing marine life. I am currently on a mission to obtain a ban on balloon releases in Maine, and hopefully everywhere else. I believe that once people know the truth about balloon “biodegradability” a ban is easily within reach. I am a member of the Town of Kennebunk Energy Efficiency Committee and an avid surfer.

Keri Kaczor
Keri Kaczor coordinates Maine Healthy Beaches, an effort to monitor water quality and protect public health on Maine’s coastal beaches. She has a B.S. in Zoology and an Environmental Studies Certificate from UW-Madison, and an M.S. in Marine Policy from the University of Maine. Keri is a member of the Marine Extension Team, a collaboration of Maine Sea Grant and UMaine Extension.
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Alice Kelley
Alice Kelley is a geoarchaeologist with decades of experience working in Maine.
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Jen Kennedy
Jen Kennedy is co-founder and Executive Director of Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation, which has been working on litter prevention and cleanup since 2001.

Julie LaBranche
Julie LaBranche is a Senior Planner with the Rockingham Planning Commission where she has extensive experience in climate change and adaptation planning. She is a native of seacoast New Hampshire, an avid gardener and supporter of the local agriculture and food scene. Her work in the region includes assisting communities with: development of Master Plans and policies; zoning ordinances and regulations relating to land use, natural resource protection, climate change, energy, and stormwater management; and integrating land use and transportation planning concepts. She holds a BS in Geological Sciences from Salem State College, MA and a MS in Earth Sciences-Geology from Montana State University, Bozeman.
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Ben Leoni
Ben Leoni is an attorney at Curtis Thaxter where his practice focuses on waterfront property issues, environmental and municipal permitting, and general civil litigation. Ben has been involved in several significant lawsuits involving the use of Maine’s seashore including the Goose Rocks Beach and Cedar Beach ownership and access lawsuits. He currently represents Acadian Seaplants in a lawsuit concerning ownership of Maine’s intertidal seaweed.
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Amy Lopata
Amy earned her BA in Psychology and BS in Elementary Education from Westfield State College and her MEd from Northeastern University in Curriculum and Instruction.  She has been lucky enough to teach at the Bagnall Elementary School in Groveland, MA, for the last 14 years, and is here representing the good work of the third and fourth grade students and their teachers.  The Pentucket Regional School District values the integration of adaptive leadership skills, technical academic skills, and personal meaning for all learners, and working with Alyson Eberhardt and her team has provided an authentic way to do this!  Together, we have worked at local coastal sites to plant beach grass and collect data for research purposes.  We are looking forward to continued collaboration as our students explore becoming local and global citizens.
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Emily Lord
Emily Lord holds a Bachelor’s in Women’s Studies and Sociology from the University of Maine, a Masters in Sociology from Illinois State University, and is the Stewardship Outreach Coordinator with UNH Cooperative Extension’s The Stewardship Network: New England initiative to mobilize volunteers to care for and study our lands and waters.
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Kevin Lucey
Kevin Lucey is the Coastal Habitat Coordinator for the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services- Coastal Program. Since joining the NH Coastal Program in 2006, Kevin has worked on many facets of coastal habitat management issues from implementing a citizen science salt marsh restoration monitoring program to leading the creation of Coastal Watershed Invasive Plant Partnership. Kevin was also the managing editor and co-author of the Stream Barrier Removal Monitoring Guide, a protocol establishing uniform methods for evaluating the performance of dam removal projects in the Gulf of Maine. Kevin has been involved with the evaluation of 12 potential dam removal projects in NH’s Coastal Watershed and is currently managing the Sawyer Mill Dams Removal Project on the Bellamy River in Dover, NH and the Gonic Dams Removal Project on the Cocheco River in Rochester, N.H.
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Abigail Lyon
Abigail Lyon has a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Conservation Studies, a Masters of Science in Coastal Ecosystem Management from the University of New Hampshire, and works as the technical assistance program manager for the Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP). PREP is one of 28 National Estuary Programs across the country charged with protecting New Hampshire’s two nationally significant estuaries – Great Bay and Hampton-Seabrook.
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Robert Marvinney
Robert Marvinney has been with the Maine Geological Survey since 1987 and has been Director and State Geologist since 1995. He runs a multi-faceted agency with programs in basic geologic mapping of Maine’s bedrock and surficial deposits, coastal geology and processes, ground water investigations, and geologic hazards.

Trevor Mattera
Trevor Mattera is a graduate student in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment at UNH and a member of the Environmental Policy, Planning, and Sustainability Lab. Trevor graduated from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, and now studies public policy, focusing on sustainability, coastal resiliency, and living shorelines under his advisor, Dr. Catherine Ashcraft. Scheduled to graduate in 2017, he hopes to use the experience from his research to continue working on coastal issues and resiliency in NH. Trevor and his wife, Kate, live in southern NH with their dog and cat, Autumn and Jack.

Toni Mikula
Toni has worked for the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge for four years, focusing on salt marsh assessments. She holds a Masters degree in Natural Resources from the University of New Hampshire.

Jeremy Miller
Jeremy Miller moved to Maine in 1999 to attend college at the University of New England in Biddeford where he received his bachelors degree in Environmental Science with a minor in Marine Biology. He started his work at the Wells Reserve as an intern in the summer of 2003 working with the Research Dept. on a number of projects ranging from the effects of trawling on benthic habitats, to energy transfer in salt marsh food webs, and became full time staff in 2004. Jeremy’s main focus at the Reserve is to coordinate the System Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP). SWMP focuses on long term monitoring of water quality, nutrients, and weather data, within our two estuaries here in Wells. He also oversees many biological monitoring programs including the Ichthyoplankton (larval fish) monitoring project which looks at the distribution and diversity of larval fishes in our estuary, and is also the Maine state Coordinator for the Marine Monitoring and Information Collaborative (MIMIC) which uses citizen scientist to track the spread of marine invasive species in the Gulf of Maine. Jeremy also manages the Michelle Dionne Research Lab located within the Maine Coastal ecology Center, and assists with a number of projects and outreach efforts of the Wells Reserve. Jeremy lives in Buxton, ME with his wife Sarah, son Lucas, and daughter Camille.
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Steve Miller
Steve is the Coastal Training Program Coordinator at the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in New Hampshire. He provides science-based training and resources to municipal decision makers. His work focuses on helping coastal New Hampshire municipal staff and volunteers maintain the balance between economic development and environmental health. Steve earned a MS in Ecosystem Ecology and Wildlife, and a BS in Zoology. Steve is the Chair of the Portsmouth Conservation Commission, and is the Co-Chair of the New Hampshire Coastal Adaptation Workgroup.
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Gregg Moore

Nathalie Morrison
Nathalie Morrison received her Master of Environmental Management with a concentration in Coastal Environmental Management from Duke University in 2013. Prior to returning home to New Hampshire, she worked as a Climate Adaptation Planning & Policy Analyst for the Hawaii Coastal Zone Management Program for two-years. Most recently, she has worked for the New Hampshire Coastal Program where she has had the pleasure of staffing the New Hampshire Coastal Risk and Hazards Commission for the last year and is the current project manager for NH Setting SAIL.

Jim Nadeau
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Neil Olson

Julia Peterson
Julia Peterson: Is New Hampshire Sea Grant Extension Program Leader and an Extension Specialist with UNH Cooperative Extension. Peterson works with NH’s Coastal Adaptation Workgroup which provides assistance to communities wishing to improve their climate preparedness. In an effort to learn more about how CAW could best to support the community leaders it works with, Peterson and student researcher, Ally Phillip, conducted a study of those community leaders and their technical assistance needs.

Ally Philip
Ally Philip is Program Manager at the the New England Grassroots Environment Fund (Grassroots Fund). The Grassroots Fund seeks to energize and nurture long-term civic engagement in local initiatives that create and maintain healthy, just, safe and environmentally sustainable communities. In her role, Ally coordinates the RootSkills Training Series and the Seed Grant Program, providing training support and starter grants to local grassroots initiatives.
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Tom Reinauer
Tom Reinauer has been the Transportation Director at Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission since 1993. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Community Development from the University of New Hampshire, and prior to coming to SMPDC he worked at the Central New Hampshire Regional Planning Commission. In addition to serving as the primary staff person to the Kittery area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), Tom also leads all of the transportation planning efforts in the SMPDC region. These include several corridor coalitions, the Maine-New Hampshire Traffic Incident Management Committee, and planning activities for the region’s public transportation services. Tom lives in Limerick with his family.
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Nathan Robbins
Nathan Robbins manages the Climate Change Program at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection where he coordinates with adaptation and mitigation activities throughout the Department and with agency partners. He has worked in state and local governments, for non-profits, and with private businesses on partnership building, science-based decision making, community engagement, and sustainable resource management practices for the past 10 years. Nathan has a B.A. in Biology from Wheaton College and a M.S. in Resource Management and Conservation from Antioch University of New England.
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Madeleine Russell
Madeleine Russell is a Local Government Outreach and Natural Hazards Georgia Sea Grant Agent. She works in Coastal Georgia with floodplain managers and the Community Rating System program. She is a Certified Floodplain Manager and she participates in the thriving Coastal Georgia CRS Users Group. Madeleine hosts many training opportunities at the Marine Extension facility in Brunswick GA and is exploring the need for Public Information Officers during hazards. Madeleine received a Masters of Marine Policy from the University of Delaware and a Bachelors Degree in Geography from the University of Vermont.

Sue Schaller
Sue Schaller has an M.S. in Wildlife & Fisheries Conservation from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She has worked for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in National Wetlands Inventory and at the Gulf of Maine Program where she was co-author on the Gulf of Maine Habitat Analysis – a GIS project that identified critical habitat for fisheries and wildlife species in decline. Sue initiated a long term study of horseshoe crab populations in Maine and a member of the Horseshoe Crab Species Specialist Group for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Currently, she consults as a Wetlands and Wildlife Biologist, providing assistance on environmental permits, wetland delineation, and wildlife habitat restoration.

Sophia Scott
Sophia Scott, a Maine native hailing from Searsmont, spent most of her childhood exploring Maine’s coast. She received a B.Sc. in Agriculture and Environmental Science from McGill University and an MS in Environmental Science and Policy from Plymouth State University. Sophia’s interests include social ecological systems, science communication, and science literacy.

Abbie Sherwin
Abbie Sherwin is a NOAA Coastal Management Fellow with the Maine Coastal Program in the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. Her work focuses on coastal hazards, sea level rise, and community resiliency. She provides technical assistance to Maine’s coastal communities on evaluating and mitigating flood vulnerability, adaptation and resiliency planning, and the Community Rating System (CRS). Abbie is a Certified Floodplain Manager® and has a Master’s degree in Coastal Science and Policy from the University of New Hampshire.
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Meagan Sims
Meagan Sims is the Southern Maine Field Coordinator for the Maine Healthy Beaches program. As part of this work, Meagan coordinates water quality monitoring efforts throughout coastal Southern Maine including the training and field support of volunteers. Additionally, she conducts public engagement initiatives including presentations to diverse audiences and support communities with the development of locally relevant outreach materials and initiatives to address best practices for improving water quality and restoring marine and freshwater resources. She conducts enhanced monitoring projects assessing potential contamination sources impacting Maine’s coastal beaches. Meagan received a B.S. in Marine Biology at the Florida Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Marine Science from the University of New England.

Peter Slovinsky
Peter Slovinsky is a marine geologist with the Maine Geological Survey with over 20 years of experience in coastal hazards.
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Tim Spahr
Tim Spahr is a Game Warden Sergeant with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. He holds degrees from College of the Atlantic and Harvard University. Tim lives in Kennebunk with his wife, Elizabeth.

Sarah Sparks
Sarah Sparks works with 4-H Science statewide as part of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. 4-H conducts informal education through facilitated learning and inquiry to encourage life skill development. Currently Sarah is working with Maine EPSCoRs SEANet program to bring current aquaculture and marine science research to young people around the state of Maine.

Pete Steckler
Pete is the GIS and Conservation Project Manager at the New Hampshire Chapter of The Nature Conservancy where he has worked for the past nine years. He works on conservation planning efforts across New Hampshire, from land conservation planning to benefit coastal water resources in the southeast to maintaining wildlife connectivity across the region’s northern forest. Pete is currently focusing much of his effort on coastal resilience projects, including an effort to replace a problematic head of tide road-stream crossing and working with partners to develop a tidal crossing assessment protocol. He has a background in environmental science (BS from the University of Vermont) and is a certified wetland scientist in New Hampshire.
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Ashley Stokes
Ashley Stokes graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 2005 with a BS in marine biology. She has been working in the marine mammal rescue and response field for eleven years.
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Amy Tchao
Amy Tchao is a shareholder at Drummond Woodsum in Portland, Maine and is the firm’s Practice Group Leader for Municipal Law. Over the past two decades, Amy has focused her practice on general municipal law, land use law and education law. Amy serves as town attorney for several Maine municipalities. Based on her experience as town attorney for a number of towns along Maine’s coast and in its lakes regions, Amy has specialized in resolving complex problems arising from shorefront development, access and permitting issues. She has represented a municipality in complex, multi-year, multi-party litigation over public beach access and recreation rights, and has negotiated land use agreements between private property owners and the town ensuring public recreational access and ongoing management of the beach resource. She has also drafted ordinances for towns on beach management and use.
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Ella van Gool
Ella van Gool is a PhD Candidate and Research Assistant at the Environmental Research Institute at the University of Waikato (NZ), where she researches marine debris. She has worked with The Ocean Cleanup to facilitate the largest research expedition in the Pacific Garbage Patch. Ella has an MBA from Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA, and a BS from Hogeschool Enschede in The Netherlands.

Cameron Wake
Cameron Wake is a Research Professor at the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space at the University of New Hampshire and is the Josephine A. Lamprey Professor in Climate and Sustainability at the UNH Sustainability Institute. Cameron leads a research program investigating regional climate change through the analysis of ice cores records and historical and instrumental data. Cameron also helps lead Climate Solutions New England, a collaborative effort to secure healthy, prosperous, and sustainable communities through the pursuit of integrated solutions that include building energy self-reliance and weather resilience. His collaborative research on several regional climate assessments in the northeast United States has been shared with municipal, state, and federal agencies and representatives, has been covered widely in the media, and has been cited by several as motivation for policy action. In recognition of his engaged scholarship around the issue of climate change, Cameron was awarded the UNH Faculty Award of Excellence in Public Service in 2010. More on Cameron’s research is available online at: http://www.eos.sr.unh.edu/Faculty/Wake
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William Walsh, III
William R. Walsh is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) with over twenty years of experience in civil engineering, site planning and project management. His experience includes all facets of site planning, engineering and design for a variety of clients including; regulatory permitting, land planning, cemetery design, storm water management, site designs for residential and institutional clients and construction management and administration.

Larry Ward
Larry Ward has a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina (1978) in Marine Geology. Primary research interests include coastal and continental shelf morphology, sedimentology and controlling processes. Dr. Ward’s most recent research focuses on seafloor characterization and change analyses, coastal geomorphology and sedimentology, and the Quaternary history and evolution of nearshore marine systems. Dr. Ward is an Associate Research Professor in the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping and Department of Earth Sciences at the University of New Hampshire.

Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson has been with the Division of Parks & Recreation for four years as the Seacoast Region Supervisor, and his background consists of 20 year of experience in the field of Parks and Recreation. He has a BS from UNH in Recreation Management & Policy and AAS in Outdoor Recreation from Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondacks.