TransCoastal Adaptations is a solutions-focused applied centre of expertise. Our mission is to help build climate resilient coastal communities and ecosystems by protecting, enhancing, and restoring natural processes through innovative research, collaboration, and implementation of nature-based adaptation and natural infrastructure solutions.

As a founding Director, President and Coastal Wetland Ecologists with CB Wetlands & Environmental Specialists (CBWES Inc.), I posses multi-disciplinary expertise in the areas of tidal wetland evaluation, monitoring and restoration, wetland assessment and delineation, and extensive project management and implementation experience that extends from initial planning through proposal preparation, design, public consultation, construction/contractor supervision and reporting. Through my Company (CBWES), I have been engaged in planning and implementing multi-objective projects to restore and enhance wetland and fish habitat systems through the integration of the best available science, with lessons learned from on-the-ground monitoring and project implementation since 2005. I have been project lead on over a dozen major tidal wetland restoration and related projects in NS over the past decade.

Have taught a number of science courses in the Biology and Environmental Science Departments (i.e., Introduction to Environmental Science; Environmental Challenges: Populations and Ecosystems), guest lectured in Biology, Environmental and Geography Departments, as well as supervised undergraduate and graduate students and projects.

As a Habitat Assessment Officer with the Habitat Management Division of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO-HMD) Maritimes Region my responsibilities included the evaluation, management and regulation of the effects of proposed projects on fish and fish habitats; preparation of a discussion paper for DFO-HMD’s Environmental Management Plan for the aquaculture industry in the Maritimes Region for a workshop on Performance-based Standards; development of a ecological monitoring program for salt marsh restoration projects in the Maritimes Region; and conducted an inventory of tidal crossings along NS’ Atlantic Coast.

I worked with the DFO-HMD’s Stewardship and Science Liaison Unit. My role within the Stewardship Unit was as a Habitat Restoration Officer with a focus on coastal wetland habitats as well as wetlands in the agricultural landscape. I worked with community, environmental, educational, and First Nations groups as well as other federal and provincial government departments on initiatives to administer habitat conservation and management projects focusing on the protection, assessment and restoration of fish and fish habitats (specifically coastal wetland, estuarine and riverine habitat) with particular emphasis on habitats of importance to migratory and endangered species. I worked (attended meetings, provided guidance/advice, assisted with project design) with many of the over 70 community and environmental groups that the Department was collaboration with at the time. I also was responsible for organizing and facilitating a regional conference on coastal wetland conservation and restoration for Federal and Provincial Government.

I held leadership roles as chair of the Coastal Issues Committee and Project Coordinator/Restoration Ecologist with the Salt Marsh Restoration Project. I was responsible for all aspects of project management (staff, volunteers, funding proposals, budget management and reporting). I was responsible for the management of staff and volunteers, both in the office and field, in order to ensure that project tasks were completed and funding requirements met.