Developing research-based extension programming to support coastal resilience and climate adaptation in New Hampshire

Support coastal and statewide education programs led by UNH Cooperative Extension and NH Sea Grant on climate adaptation for communities. Provide science-based education, technical assistance, and facilitation to support decision-makers, landowners, professionals, and others to develop strategies to prepare for and adapt to climate change.

I serve as the part-time Coordinator of Great Bay 2020, a collective impact effort for strategic action and investment in Great Bay and its watershed. The primary goal of the effort is to enhance coordination and collaboration between partners working in the watershed, ultimately with the aim of supporting a healthy estuary. This position involves coordinating and facilitating meetings for the Great Bay 2020 Steering Committee, tracking progress and funding, engaging partners to identify priorities and brainstorm project ideas, planning events, and developing informational materials about the effort.More information about Great Bay 2020 is available here: http://prepestuaries.org/initiatives/great-bay-2020/.

Contract position assisting with planning and co-leading the implementation of the stakeholder engagement components of an integrated assessment project, funded by the NERRS Science Collaborative, that aims to identify and evaluate options for improving wetland and riparian buffer management in the Great Bay Estuary watershed. For this project, I am focused on a "community assessment," including conducting interviews with municipal board members and other stakeholders, compiling relevant resources, and reporting the findings. I also help manage the project's Advisory Committee and support the communications, project management, and other components of the project as needed. More information about this project is available here: http://graham.umich.edu/activity/32648.For a second project, funded by NOAA, I will be working to develop New Hampshire-focused resources around living shorelines and implementing a series of workshops for local and state stakeholders. More information about this project is available here: http://www.neracoos.org/regionalresiliency.

ICNet is a network of climate scientists and engineering researchers and practitioners who are working to accelerate climate science and engineering research in the northeast. ICNet focuses on climate change and sea level rise impacts and adaptation for sustainable bridges, roads, and transportation networks. I assisted with the development of a communications plan, which includes managing the development of a new website for the network (http://theicnet.org/), supported the release of network members' research products through the website, and supported the communication of lessons learned from this unique collaborative effort.

I assisted with the development of communication tools to share the results of research funded by the Science Collaborative with the rest of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) and other stakeholders. This involved developing project information briefs and organizing and interpreting survey data. I also helped with a workshop at the Old Woman Creek NERR to share findings and lessons learned from multiple Reserves' stormwater projects. Most recently, I developed content for the new NERRA website (www.nerra.org), assisted with the development of a collaborative research toolkit, proofread and edited the website using WordPress, and used HootSuite to organize social media posts.

As part of the TIDES program, I did a six-month internship at the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve, a partnership between NOAA and the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. I collaborated with a team to plan and carry out a series of public meetings to involve a community in a restoration planning process and share relevant scientific information. I coordinated speakers for different topics, did logistical preparation, compiled summaries of the presentations and feedback from evaluation forms and question/comment cards, and followed up with attendees.In addition, I helped plan and implement a workshop last July to share the findings and tools of the Hudson River Sustainable Shorelines Project with shore zone decision-makers (engineers, landscape architects, and permit officials). We recently did a follow-up survey to learn about the longer-term impacts of the workshop to further evaluate the effectiveness of the training approach. The Shorelines Project has a network of demonstration sites, and I worked with another intern to develop a monitoring plan, implement the first round of site monitoring with this approach, and revise the plan as needed. Additionally, I helped assess content and usability needs of the project's website, did some website editing (using WordPress), and updated the project overview.I also developed a decision tree for thinking through restoration of submerged aquatic vegetation in the Hudson River Estuary. This decision tree was used to guide a forum in October to discuss a way forward for restoring SAV in the Hudson. This forum led to the recent funding of two proposals.November 2014: Presented a poster at the 7th National Summit on Coastal and Estuarine Restoration, hosted by Restore America's Estuaries in Washington, D.C. Poster title: Applying the Findings of the Hudson River Sustainable Shorelines Project.

I assisted a postdoc researcher with experiment set-up and data collection for a project investigating the effects of nitrogen on fungal growth and physiology. My main responsibilities include culturing fungi from leaf litter and sporocarps, running lab experiments, performing enzyme assays, collecting sporocarps and measuring respiration in the field, processing soil and litter samples, extracting fungal DNA and performing PCR for sequencing, assisting with plot maintenance, and managing data using Microsoft Excel. I also did an inventory of all of the fungal cultures we have in order to improve organization and streamline finding the cultures we need.July 2013: Presented a poster at the biennial Soil Ecology Society Conference at Rutgers Camden. Poster title: Effects of increased nitrogen deposition on the functioning of decomposer fungi.Summer 2011: REU project comparing the growth rates on media with different nitrogen levels of several fungal species collected from experimental plots in Puerto Rico.

Assisted with downloading Landsat scenes for several projects and sorting photographs from project sites. Gained experience with QGIS and Grass GIS.

Assisted with variety trials, including planting, counting and weighing, and harvesting.