Urban Waters is a coalition of fourteen federal agencies working in 19 locations to restore urban waterways and the lands that surround them. As the Northwest Indiana Urban Waters Coordinator (ambassador), I am a program manager who works with a wide variety of audiences to identify regional water quality and restoration priorities, develop a workplan, and connect those working on the ground to federal agencies able to help advance, track, and implement regional priorities.

Initiated grant search, proposals, and management efforts to obtain over $300,000 in grants for youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility. More than doubled annual grant revenue, exceeding budgetary goals.

As Grants Coordinator, I identified and evaluated grant opportunities and wrote competitive proposals to develop programs for an environmental education focused non-profit. I worked with program staff to track, manage, and fulfill grant deadlines, deliverables, and reporting requirements.

While with Save the Dunes I oversaw the Water Program, including the development and implementation of watershed management plans with diverse partners. I obtained and managed nearly $2 million in grants to further organizational and program goals. I excelled at project management, assuring that grant task and deliverables were completed on time and within budget. In this position I gained event planning and facilitation skills by coordinating productive public and steering committee meetings, workshops, groundbreakings, fundraisers, and other events. I applied my verbal and written communication skills through presentations, reports, press releases, newsletter articles, brochures, and other media. I demonstrated leadership skills, overseeing staff, interns, and volunteers to meet programmatic and organizational goals. As an expert in the field, I served as a Team Leader and regular case study presenter at the Indiana Watershed Leadership Academy.

I contributed technical expertise for watershed projects, including water quality monitoring, data analysis, mapmaking and spatial analysis, and pollutant load modelling.

Planned and conducted research on bioremediation of pollutants and E. coli source tracking. Trained students and researchers in molecular laboratory techniques. Analyzed results, wrote scientific papers (see publications), and presented work at domestic and international conferences.