Melissa Day Email & Phone Number

Annapolis, Maryland, United States

Maryland DNR’s Environmental Review Program (ERP)- I support ERP by assessing potential natural resource impacts and mitigation strategies of MDOT projects as part of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process. For those MDOT projects that impact State-owned properties, I perform an internal review where I collaborate with natural resource experts such as fisheries, forestry, and wildlife and heritage within the agency to ensure adequate protections are in place for our natural resources prior to temporary or permanent easements requests are processed. I initiate the right-of-entry agreement prior to work starting after all resource mitigation strategies are reviewed.• Earned Basic Wetland Delineation Certificate from Environmental Concern, Inc May 20-24, 2024

Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Office of Contract Management and Procurement (OCMP)- I work alongside Procurement Officers and Program Leaders to make sure services are provided at quality and quantity while also on time and on-budget. Earned 3 certificates:• Earned Contract Management Practitioner Development Certification, by MDoT March 2022• Earned Contract Management Organizational Capability Certificate, by NASPO & NCMA Nov 2022• Earned Certified Maryland Procurement Associate, by Maryland Procurement Academy May 2023Other accomplishments:•Managed all contracts for Maryland Public Health Laboratory including an emergency sole source for newborn screening for metabolic disorders.•Managed several Covid-19 response contracts, valuing over $272 million with $79 million in modifications, including those providing K-12 public & private schools Covid-19 testing services •Managed Self-Directed Financial Management and Counseling Services with the Developmental Disabilities Agency•Managed poor performing vendor the State Anatomy Board to assist in emergency procurement to replace vendor

Edgewater, Maryland, United States

Smithsonian's Chesapeake Bay located research hub with field site for Global Warming studies, eutrophication studies and much more! More information, check out the GCREW website... https://serc.si.edu/gcrewMain Accomplishments:•Refreshed protocols for calibrating instruments and calibration checks as well as analyte holding times•Completed backlog of data entry•Repaired Gas analyzer instrument that had no service agreementOther Work Performed:•Edited standard operating procedures, organized lab, maintain supply inventory & advised on process efficiency.•Collaborated with multiple principal investigators & coordinated with multiple post-docs on their research needs • Projects included long term CO2 and N fertilization as well as warming mesocosms in coastal marsh along the Rhode River. Porewater samples are analyzed regularly as well as plant biomass above and below-ground.

Solomons, Maryland, United States

The Chesapeake Biological Laboratory is the oldest publicly supported marine laboratory on the East Coast. One of University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science campuses founded in 1925, it has been a national leader in fisheries, estuarine ecology.Main Accomplishments:•Successfully managed intensive sampling projects with small crew and a tight budget•Completed first 5-year stage of wetland restoration and a year of second 5-year stage• Wrote and co-wrote 1 peer-reviewed journal article and 18 technical reportsOther Accomplishments:•Managed budgets & all logistics of field and lab work required for projects. • Calibrated and maintained analytical instrumentation for field and lab use. • For coastal watershed and climate change data collection, I intensively sampled storms, baseflow of creeks in the watershed while monitoring nutrient dynamics, carbon species source types, suspended sediments, and chlorophyll. •Projects included ecosystem/shoreline restoration with dredge spoils, oyster filtration rates, nutrient budgets in watersheds, sediment and nutrient loading, eutrophication, anoxia, climate change, ecosystem engineering with mechanical pumping in a natural system...•I drove boats, mucked in marshes, hiked in rugged terrain; sampled waters, gases and sediments; and analyzed the samples back in the laboratory.•Work also included QA/QC of data.

Dauphin Island, Al

After the Deep Water Horizon oil leak disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, I went down to help collect biological samples for post-oil leak data. The air still smelled horrible and there were then still oil slicks moving around under water. We collected fish larvae and jellyfish specimens. I also assisted in analytical water analysis.I was able to work at DISL for 6 weeks until my salaried position started at University of Maryland.

Millersville, Pa

Processed plankton samples and compiled data like species, size and count in continuing my research from 2005-2006. I co-authored a paper with Dr. Julie Ambler and some other colleagues. The zooplankton paper was in Continental Shelf Research journal, October 2013.

Conway, Sc

I was the main field and laboratory technician for hypoxia research cruises in Long Bay. Part of the work was maintaining continuously deployed sondes at surface and bottom waters at the end of Apache Pier in North Myrtle Beach. I performed coliform bacteria sampling of Long Bay, along a large transect of Myrtle Beach, weekly, that was reported to the city in their online swimmability report. I also assisted in sampling watershed sites near USGS gaging stations and other Waccamaw River watershed sites. This position also involved wet chemistry analyses such as nitrate, ammonium and biochemical oxygen demand.

Columbia, Sc

This position involved managing the main campus lab for Dr. James Morris. I maintained stock of chemicals and OSHA health and safety. I trained graduate students on lab protocols and safety awareness. I conducted research, collecting samples in the field and analyzing them in the lab. Field experiments involved tagging and observing movement of snails in a salt marsh as the tide changed; sampling outgassing of CO2 from marsh sediments; sampling sediments for analysis of carbon content. I also helped collect monthly porewater at specific depths, read back rod sediment elevation tables, and performed the annual above and below ground biomass for LTER sites at Baruch Institute in South Carolina and Plum Island in Massachusetts.

Middletown, Pa

I started as data package compiler for Wet Chemistry Dept, which involves following a sample or set of samples along their chain of custody and all the QA/QC for each analysis requested. These data packages included instrument calibrations preceeding the sample run, blanks, QC checks before and after the samples, spikes and duplicate results. I had to make sure the samples were analyzed appropriately for their EPA or Standard Method within holding time and were stored appropriately after collection and before analysis. I was soon trained on ~90% of Wet Chem methods, microbiology, TOC/TOX analyses [Cyanides, nitrates, ammonium, ortho-phosphate, total phosphorus, alkalinity, total suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand, etc). I was especially integral in their weekend BOD sample readbacks. Any samples set up on Tuesday had to incubate for 5 days and would then be read back on Sundays. On those days I also checked to see if any samples would be missed for holding times in our LIM system and made sure those samples were set to be analyzed immediately- this only happened on a few occasions with BOD, TSS, pH samples and sometimes microbiological samples.I was also integral in the daily tasks of balance calibration checks, temperature logs, water bath temperature logs, freezer temperature checks, inventory, and the less often validating reagent lots and certification checks, laboratory audits.I was a co-founder of their Health and Safety Committee and arranged for the lab to pay for Hepatitis vaccinations for all employees.I also assisted in QA/QC reporting for the entire laboratory when that department needed special assistance.

Bsc, Biology With Focus On Marine Biology With A Minor In Oceanography

Msc, In Progress, Environmental Science