Milwaukee Water Commons is a cross-city network that fosters connection, collaboration and broad community leadership on behalf of our waters. We promote stewardship of, equitable access to and shared decision-making for our common waters.Through my role as Water City Program Coordinator I help to facilitate programs and projects associated with Milwaukee Water Common's Water Quality and Blue Green Jobs Initiatives. Through this position I've had the opportunity to collaborate with partners from around the City of Milwaukee, and around the country, to develop and implement collective approaches to promoting water equity in a way that empowers communities and pushes for environmental justice.

During my contracted position with Milwaukee River Keeper I assisted with and coordinated a variety of projects dealing with community education and outreach, data analysis, and technical writing. This position included:-The creation of Milwaukee Riverkeeper's 2016 Milwaukee River Basin Report Card. A publication which synthesizes and interprets data collected within the Milwaukee River Basin, to describe the status of the Milwaukee River, Menomonee River, and Kinnickinnic River watersheds. -Coordination of Milwaukee Riverkeeper's chloride outreach program. An initiative aiming to educate public and private road salt applicators about the impact of road salt on local water quality, and the importance of sustainable road salt application. This program involved public presentations, and a workshop with private applicators held in late August. -Leadership during volunteer trainings for Milwaukee Riverkeeper's Water Quality Monitoring and Aesthetics Monitoring programs.-Assisted with updates to the Milwaukee Urban Water Trail map. The Milwaukee Urban Water Trail Map will include information about water access throughout Milwaukee and Ozaukee County along the Milwaukee, Menomonee, and Kinnickinnic River.

This position is granted as an extension to recent Northland College graduates so that they can continue higher level work on research projects being undertaken by The Mary Griggs Burke Center for freshwater innovation. Through this position I continued to assist with field work on numerous projects being conducted on local lakes and streams, as well as the Chequamegon Bay of Lake Superior. Additionally I assisted with the coordination of the 2016 Water Summit, and the production of a video and white paper summary of the event.

This is the top student position offered by the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation. Through this position I will continue to organize and coordinate projects for the Burke Center, focusing on completing the centers Sea Grant funded research on primary productivity and water chemistry in the Chequamegon Bay. This year I will additionally be focusing on training incoming students to fill my position and continue research that I have been conducting on plankton community ecology and water chemistry, dragonfly collection in coordination with the National Parks Service, and aquatic plant surveys in the Chippewa Flowage. As I conclude my time at the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation, I will be working on publishing some of the research that we have been doing concerning phytoplankton and zooplankton communities in the Chequamegon Bay.

The Chequamegon Water Collaborative is a student organized program aimed at connecting communities around the Chequamegon Bay over the topic of water resources. As a co director of this group I will be assisting with each of the projects that are undertaken over the course of the year, and working to guarantee that the program is able to continue into the future. The projects that we will be conducting include a storm drain initiative in the towns of Washburn, Bayfield, and Ashland (WI) working with local elementary schools; an outdoor education program hosting free canoe trips to sites of water quality concern around the Chequamegon Bay; and a conference to be hosted at the Northern Great Lakes Visitors Center where we will directly connect community members from the region to local research and initiatives involving water resources. On top of these projects I will be assisting with outreach to local businesses and community leaders from Ashland, Washburn, and Bayfield, as well as the Bad River and Red Cliff Tribes.

Through this position I am collaborating on a number of research projects in more of a leadership position. I will be continuing work analyzing water chemistry and plankton ecology on the Chequamegon Bay in response to changes in time. Also I will be leading trips to collect dragonfly larvae for mercury analysis in collaboration with the NPS, and conducting plant surveys on the Chippewa Flowage under the Lac Courte tribe.

This position included work on a number of research projects involving water chemistry analysis, and plankton ecology on different water bodies. Through this position I was also able to hold consulting positions with the USGS, and NPS, researching the impacts that silver carp have had on the Mississippi and St. Croix River.