BOEM’s lead for offshore wind lease planning in the Central Atlantic region. Lead for management of the Ocean Wind 1 and Carolina Long Bay renewable energy leases. Served as the interim lead for Gulf of Maine commercial lease planning.

I managed NOAA Fisheries Office of Aquaculture’s national aquaculture regulatory science program. The goal of the Office of Aquaculture is to ensure that U.S. marine aquaculture grows sustainably, helping to support resilient coastal communities and healthy oceans.

Special Assistant to the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce in tbe Office of the Executive Secretariat. Responsible for timely development of high quality briefing materials from across the Dept. of Commerce on a broad range of domestic and international issues.

I led The Nature Conservancy's Global Aquaculture Program’s science portfolio within the Global Oceans Team, based out of our Worldwide Headquarters. I was responsible for co-developing and implementing the strategy's aquaculture science portfolio, with particular focuses on assessment of ecosystem services of aquaculture and aquaculture siting and spatial planning (geospatial modeling and stakeholder engagement processes). I actively worked on projects in Micronesia (Palau), East Africa (Tanzania), Central America (Belize), along with global scale synthesis science to understand the magnitude of opportunity available for aquaculture to serve as a tool to benefit nature and people.

As an expert in technical approaches to marine spatial planning, I led global- to local-scale geospatial analyses to inform responsible aquaculture development. At the global-level, I led a spatial analysis to identify regions where targeted development of shellfish and seaweed aquaculture would yield ecosystem recovery and societal benefits. At the local-level, I led spatial analyses in the United States and internationally to identify compatible locations for siting of specific aquaculture operations that minimize environmental and space use conflicts. I also led development of technical reports, peer-reviewed manuscripts, and have extensive experience with public speaking and facilitating stakeholder-engagement workshops, conference events, and other engagements.

For my dissertation, I developed geospatial tools to guide coastal habitat protection and oyster restoration in North Carolina using a combination of field-based approaches and computer models. I was one of 12 graduate oceanography students in the US to receive a highly competitive 3-year (~$140K) Department of Defense National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, along with ~$30K in additional independently-acquired grant funding support from NC Sea Grant, NC Space Grant, and NC Coastal Reserve. I published 6 peer-reviewed applied research scientific articles as a result of my graduate work.

Field and laboratory research specialist in the VIMS Marine Conservation Biology and Community Ecology laboratory, focused on contributing field and technical support to the annual Chesapeake Bay-wide blue crab winter dredge survey to assess population status and inform fishery management, and Chesapeake Bay sanctuary oyster reef monitoring. I began working at VIMS as a high school student and gained extensive field- and laboratory-research experience in my 7 years working on Chesapeake Bay conservation and restoration research (including a highly-competitive National Science Foundation REU Internship in 2011).