Collin Knauss Email & Phone Number

Evanston, Illinois, United States

###The Great Lakes Protection Fund is a nonprofit impact investor committed to protecting the health of the Great Lakes ecosystem. We invest in teams of innovators and visionaries across the Great Lakes basin who have creative and ambitious ideas for improving the ecosystem. Our support helps launch and accelerate strategies and solutions that have the potential to be transformational and unlock new pathways for delivering scalable ecosystem impact.We work closely with project teams to hone their strategies, expand collaboration, and think bigger about how their solutions can scale and have regional impact across the Great Lakes. The most attractive ideas are novel, with the potential to ripple across the basin creating positive, disruptive change that makes the work done by the private sector, governments, and civil society more effective. Since 1989, we have awarded more than $98 million in support of transformational solutions.

Greater Detroit Area

Project leader for a graduate student fellowship. We worked with Huron Pines, an Environmental NGO in Northern Michigan on a pilot study in Rogers City, Michigan. Our project looks at assessing community readiness for sustainable solutions to stormwater management.----The Dow Sustainability Fellows Program at the University of Michigan, made possible by Dow, supports full-time graduate students and scholars who are committed to finding interdisciplinary, actionable, and meaningful sustainability solutions on local-to-global scales. The program prepares future sustainability leaders to make a positive difference in organizations worldwide.

Greater Detroit Area

Appointed to the 2019 State of the Strait Conference steering committee based on work done through a University of Michigan Rackham Public Engagement Fellowship with SEMIWILD. Contributed to more than 50 unique environmental indicator reports for the 2019 State of the Strait Conference. This biennial conference, aimed at evaluating ecosystem health of the Detroit River and western Lake Erie, was held at the University of Windsor and engaged more than 300 stakeholders and 50 partner organizations actively involved in the Detroit River and western Lake Erie basin.

Research assistant with the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability. Continuing research on master's degree consulting project with the Michigan Office of the Great Lakes (now part of Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy).

Ann Arbor, Mi

Served as a graduate student consultant for master's degree project involving Michigan's Areas of Concern Program, administered by the Michigan Office of the Great Lakes (OGL). This project was completed as part of the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability master's degree requirements. Designed a comprehensive analysis of long-term environmental, social, economic revitalization strategies for the program. Research resulted in a final report to the Michigan OGL, titled "Life after Delisting: Sustaining Environmental Stewardship in Michigan Areas of Concern."

Received a Master of Science in Environment and Sustainability

Graduate Student Instructor for undergraduate-level course focusing on ecological principles and concepts underlying the management and use of natural resources, as well as socioeconomic factors and institutional roles. Offered though the University of Michigan | LSA Program in the Environment (PitE).

Dearborn, Mi

Compiled and interpreted long-term data bases for 20+ ecosystem indicators from the Detroit River-Western Lake Erie basin. This work was presented at the 2019 State of the Strait Conference, a biennial conference to evaluate ecosystem health of the Detroit River and western Lake Erie. Appointed to the 2019 State of the Strait Conference steering committee.

Ann Arbor, Mi

Graduate Student Instructor for graduate-level core ecology course at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS).

Washington D.C. Metro Area

Washington D.C. Metro Area

Rockville, Md

Research assistant on a team led by Colorado College biology professor, Brian Linkhart, contributing to his renowned long-term (30+ years) study of Flammulated Owls in the Manitou Experimental Forest, CO. Contributed to pioneering climate change research based on Flammulated Owl demography shifts and habitat preferences responding to various disturbances.

Awarded “Coastal Research in Environmental Science and Technology (CREST)” REU internship at the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston). This 10-week immersive research experience exposes students to cutting edge, authentic, coastal environmental research at UMass Boston in an integrative transdisciplinary program across the natural and social sciences.For my internship, I conducted original aquatic field/laboratory research on a permeable reactive barrier technology in Waquoit Bay (Cape Cod, MA) aimed at denitrifying contaminated groundwater from entering a marine environment. I presented this research at the annual Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) Conference in New Orleans, LA. I was one of 22 undergraduates selected to attend out of more than 400 applicants, and received an outstanding student presentation award – one of 23 recipients out of 721.

Advanced coursework on terrestrial and aquatic ecology

Awarded the 2011 Charlie Blumenstein Water and Wildlife Conservation Internship. I was responsible for assisting stewardship staff with protection and enhancement of wildlife habitat and natural resources on The Nature Conservancy’s Silver Creek Preserve in Picabo, ID.The internship is named after Charlie Blumenstein (Colorado College class of ’96), who was passionate about the environment and conservation of water resources. He credited his informal, out-of-classroom, extra-curricular, field experiences with his decision to become a hydrogeologist and to devote his professional life to the improvement of water resources.

Master Of Business Administration - Mba, Erb Institute For Global Sustainable Enterprise

Co-President (2020-2021), Detroit Revitalization & Business Initiative Director of Impact Projects (2019-2020), Detroit Revitalization &.

Master Of Science - Ms, Conservation Ecology | Behavior, Education & Communication

Graduate Student Instructor, EAS 501 & ENV 201 Dean's Challenge Fellow SEAS Sustainability Chair, Student Government SEAS Conservation.

Bachelor Of Arts (Ba), Biology: Organisms, Ecology And Evolution

Graduated with distinction

Education record

Advanced coursework on terrestrial and aquatic ecology