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Collaborative Science for Estuaries Webinar Series

Join us for monthly webinars featuring project teams supported by the NERRS Science Collaborative. Speakers share their unique approaches to addressing current coastal and estuarine management issues. Learn about new methods to integrate technical experts and users of project outputs into the research process, and how their research results and products might inform your work.

Be sure to check back periodically for session recordings and other relevant products, or sign up (Mailing List | RSS) to receive notifications about new resources and upcoming webinars.

Upcoming Webinars

Mon 6/22/2026, 3 - 4pm EDT
Speaker(s):
Howard Veregin and Kirsten Rhude
Direct link to this webinar »

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The St. Louis River estuary runs along the boundary between Minnesota and Wisconsin in the Duluth-Superior metro area at the headwaters to Lake Superior. Since its designation as a Great Lakes Area of Concern (AOC) in 1987, local land stewards have dedicated decades of remediation and restoration efforts toward improving water quality, removing legacy contaminants, and restoring fish and wildlife habitat. As the estuary approaches AOC delisting, a group of natural resource professionals is collaborating to develop a St. Louis River Habitat Plan to identify strategies for mitigating environmental stressors and prioritize opportunities for habitat restoration.

In response to a need to support the identification and prioritization of areas for future restoration and conservation, a 2023 science transfer project adapted a habitat mapping process developed by the Lake Superior Reserve to a much larger area encompassing 57,000 acres of wetlands and adjacent uplands spanning the lower twenty-one miles of the St. Louis River. Products included a final habitat map as well as an open source workflow that could be repeated in other geographic locations or used to update existing maps and observe change over time. In this webinar, the team will discuss the multi-phase approach they took to develop the habitat map, how it is being used, as well as lessons learned.

Speakers:

howard veregin

Howard Veregin, Wisconsin State Cartographer's Office, University of Wisconsin

Howard was appointed State Cartographer in September, 2009. His previous positions include Director of Geographic Information Services at Rand McNally and Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Minnesota. Howard served as Project/Fiscal Lead on the project.

kirsten rhude

Kirsten Rhude, Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve

Kirsten Rhude is the Stewardship Coordinator at the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve, where she works on protecting, restoring, and connecting people to the lands and waters of the St. Louis River Estuary and Lake Superior. Kirsten served as the Collaborative Lead on the project, ensuring that the interdisciplinary team was connecting with and meeting local needs.

Thu 7/30/2026, 3 - 4pm EDT
Speaker(s):
Megan Lamb and Jared Franklin
Direct link to this webinar »

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Uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), also known as drones, offer a lower cost, less invasive alternative to traditional ground-based monitoring for emergent vegetation that also provides higher resolution images than satellite-based imagery. “Drone the NERRS,” a science transfer project, evaluated the efficacy of a standardized UAS wetland monitoring protocol for assessing and monitoring emergent vegetation across more reserves representing a range of biogeographic regions across the NERRS.

The project increased overall drone-related capacity within the Reserve System by lowering barriers to UAS-based monitoring, supporting the development of a community of practice, and encouraging UAS pilot certification for more reserve staff. Applying the protocol across different experience levels, airframes, and software used for mission planning and analysis yielded unique experiences for staff at each participating reserve. These experiences enabled staff to provide feedback on the protocol while also informing other reserves interested in adding UAS capacity to their programs in the future. In this webinar, the project team will share about their experience building towards a System-wide UAS community of practice, as well as project outcomes and lessons learned.

Speakers:

megan lamb

Megan Lamb, Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve

Megan is the Research Coordinator and Assistant Manager at the Apalachicola NERR. Her career at the reserve has spanned the research and stewardship sectors and has focused on a variety of projects including water quality, biological communities, threatened species, habitat monitoring, and more. Megan has held a UAS pilot’s license for three years and served as the Collaborative Lead for this project. 

jared franklin

Jared Franklin, Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve

Jared is the Stewardship Coordinator at Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. He is responsible for overseeing the management of natural and cultural resources within Rookery Bay NERR, including invasive species control, prescribed fire, listed species management, and hydrological restoration.  Jared served as the PI for Drone the NERRs from 2024 onwards.

Past Webinars

Mon 4/27/2026, 4 - 5pm EDT
Speaker(s):
Shimi Rii, Veronica Gibson, and Henrietta Dulai
Direct link to webinar »

Wai (freshwater) has been historically managed by Native Hawaiian communities to sustain food security on the most remote islands on Earth. In the past century, land use and socio-economic change has transformed many of Hawaiʻi’s coastal landscapes, leading to altered groundwater recharge, storage, and transport, and reduced surface water flows. To better inform biocultural restoration and future groundwater management, this collaborative research project performed an in-depth characterization of surface and groundwater flow throughout Heʻeia.

Some of the most transformative aspects of this work were the collaborative process itself and the workshops, which strengthened relationships between researchers, resource managers, and educators and fostered a more nuanced collective understanding of how wai is linked to biocultural restoration. In this webinar, the team shares two major highlights of the study, answering the questions: How does surface and groundwater flow in the Heʻeia watershed; and what does water look like entering the coastal ecosystem?

Speakers:

shimi rii

Shimi Rii, Heʻeia National Estuarine Research Reserve

Shimi is a faculty specialist at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and also leads the Research and Monitoring Program as the Research Coordinator for the Heʻeia National Estuarine Research Reserve. Her expertise spans marine ecology with phytoplankton and nutrient dynamics in estuarine, coastal, and open ocean environments. Shimi dedicates her life to facilitating and promoting reciprocal, community-driven research. She is passionate about expanding the impact of ocean science to multiple communities through the weaving of different disciplines and perspectives. Shimi served as the project lead for this project.

veronica gibson

Veronica Gibson, Heʻeia National Estuarine Research Reserve; Mālama Maunalua

Veronica Gibson is now the science and planning manager for Mālama Maunalua. She is a trained ecohydrologist and phycologist, with a specialization in biocultural systems. As a postdoctoral fellow for the Heʻeia NERR, Veronica led the implementation of this project, including collaborative engagement, field measurements of biogeochemistry and hydrology, and data analysis. 

henrietta dulai

Henrietta Dulai, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

Henrietta is a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at UH. She is a geochemist and coastal hydrologist applying geochemical tracers to study surface water-groundwater interactions, saltwater intrusion, conceptual groundwater flow models, and stream hydrology. On the project she was a technical lead responsible for collaborating on formulating the science questions, creating the sampling designs, and data interpretation.

Tue 3/31/2026, 3 - 4pm EDT
Speaker(s):
Sabra Comet and Nick Soberal
Direct link to webinar »

Program staff and collection co-authors gave a special presentation to share more about the Indigenous Knowledge and Collaborative Science Resource Collection. The goal of this collection is to support people who want to understand how collaborative science can align with and affirm Indigenous sovereignty and rights to self-determination. The NERRS Science Collaborative program and partners created this collection in response to a need expressed by project teams and reserve partners; namely, to better understand sovereignty and what it means for collaborative science. Together, we are learning how to better support project teams who are working with Native nations or who wish to do so. We hope that the information presented in this collection will help people to better understand the broader context of this topic, and to be respectful of knowledge that is not, and cannot be assumed to be, theirs. 

Speakers:

sabra comet

Sabra Comet, South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve

Sabra is the Training and Engagement Program Coordinator at the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, an Osage Nation Tribal member, and a former Sea Grant Knauss Fellow. They served as a co-author for the written pieces and co-led the development of the overall design of the collection. 

nick soberal

Nick Soberal, NERRS Science Collaborative

Nick Soberal is a science communications specialist and serves as a program officer for knowledge exchange and capacity building projects. In addition to supporting program management activities, Nick leads the development of science communications products that synthesize and share stories across projects, maintains the project catalog and resource library, and produces the program’s Collaborative Science for Estuaries webinar series. He served as a co-author for the written pieces and co-led the development process for the overall collection.

Moderator:

doug george

Doug George, NOAA Office for Coastal Management

Doug George is a trained geological oceanographer and the program manager for the NERRS Science Collaborative. He has worked throughout the West Coast as a federal scientist, state resource manager, and environmental consultant with projects ranging from estuary restoration and living shorelines to regional sediment management and climate change adaptation.

Tue 3/3/2026, 3 - 4pm EST
Speaker(s):
Christine Feurt and Neil Ganju
Direct link to webinar »

Marshes for Maine’s Future used an innovative Collaborative Learning approach to facilitate the application of geospatial tools developed by USGS to marsh projects in Maine. The tools provide a scientific framework for supporting decision-makers who actively research and manage climate-induced changes in marsh resilience and vulnerability. The project team developed a series of virtual and in-person knowledge sharing workshops where the USGS creators of the geospatial products could interact with salt marsh professionals working on marsh resilience projects that could benefit from applying the tools. Applying the geospatial tools during these workshops contributed to work protecting, restoring, and managing Maine’s salt marshes.

The project’s final products include a step-by-step guide called “How to Catalyze Geospatial Science to Build Marsh Resilience,” which is for Training and Engagement professionals and geospatial tool designers who want to design, implement, and evaluate projects that produce effective and efficient outcomes that achieve resilience goals and maintain ecosystem services. In this webinar, project lead Chris Feurt and technical lead Neil Ganju will share the geospatial tools that were transferred as part of this project, as well as the adaptations and collaborative processes used to fit the tools to the needs of the marsh managers in the region.

Speakers:

chris feurt

Christine Feurt, Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve

Christine Feurt is the Coastal Resilience Scientist at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve in Wells, Maine and a Research Associate in the School of Marine and Environmental Science at the University of New England. Dr. Feurt collaborates with communities and organizations working to sustain coastal ecosystems. Chris uses the Collaborative Learning approach to integrate local knowledge and expertise with natural and social science to build resilient coastal communities where the things people value are conserved for future generations.

neil ganju

Neil Ganju, U.S. Geological Survey

Neil Ganju is a Research Oceanographer at the US Geological Survey (USGS) Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center. He began his USGS career at the California Water Science Center, studying hydrodynamics and sediment transport in San Francisco Bay. He currently leads the Estuarine Processes, Hazards, and Systems project.  Project research spans the multiple disciplines that converge in estuarine systems, including numerical model development, field observations of hydrodynamics and water quality, wetland and coastal vulnerability assessments, geomorphic change, and eutrophication.

Wed 1/14/2026, 3 - 4pm EST
Speaker(s):
Luke Miller and Kristen Goodrich
Direct link to webinar »

Southern California’s estuaries can experience large swings in water quality due to events like freshwater inflow, sewage spills, and estuary mouth closures. The Tijuana River NERR (TRNERR) monitors several estuaries in San Diego County to better understand how biological communities respond to changes in water quality. Through an iterative process with TRNERR and other users, this project team co-developed a biosensor monitoring system that uses shellfish (oysters and mussels) as biosentinels. Alongside state and local land managers and other wetland and aquaculture professionals, the team designed an open-source electronic sensor that attaches to shellfish and monitors gaping behavior and heart rate. These metrics that can be used as indicators of physiological stress in response to environmental changes.

In this webinar, the project team will describe their collaborative process within the team and with additional potential end users. Potential users included resource managers,  aquaculture practitioners, and research biologists working with these bivalves in other settings. The team will describe the basic components of the biosensor equipment and approaches used in the field and lab for gathering and analyzing data. Data from the focal estuaries will be used to illustrate individual and group responses of the biosentinel bivalves to rapidly-shifting water quality conditions. 

Speakers:

luke miller

Luke Miller, San Diego State University

Luke Miller is an Associate Professor of Biology at San Diego State University. His research examines how shoreline animals interact with their constantly-changing environment, including how they use behavior and physiological responses to deal with extreme conditions. Luke served as the project lead on the Habitat Heartbeats project. 

kristen goodrich

Kristen Goodrich, Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve

Kristen Goodrich is the Director of Training and Engagement at TRNERR. She is an interdisciplinary social scientist and focuses on the human dimensions of coastal management. She served as collaborative lead for the project and loved watching people’s eyes light up when they learned that, yes, oysters have heartbeats!

kevin marquez johnson

Kevin Marquez Johnson, California Sea Grant

Kevin Marquez Johnson is an Aquaculture Extension Specialist with California Sea Grant. His research and extension programming focus on the California aquaculture industry with multiple projects investigating abiotic and biotic stressors influencing oyster growth and survival. 

Tue 12/2/2025, 2 - 3pm EST
Speaker(s):
Lindsey Williams, Lynn Vaccaro, Julia Peterson, and Katri Gurney
Direct link to webinar »

The municipalities within the Great Bay Watershed vary in size and their capacity to address watershed management and infrastructure issues related to water quality, creating a need to strengthen connections across social science research and its applications to outreach, education, technical assistance, and engagement. As local social science studies emerged that could inform new and existing community engagement, outreach, and education programs in the watershed, practitioners – including training and education staff at Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and partners working on outreach, engagement, and education related to water quality –  asked for help identifying, interpreting, and applying this research.

To help address this management need, a science transfer project team worked to gather, categorize, and summarize available relevant human dimensions research and explore the findings through workshops and interactive peer learning sessions that brought together researchers and practitioners to discuss the practical implications of the research as well as build capacity to interpret existing and design new research. In this webinar, the project team provides an overview of the approach used to build stronger connections, highlights key takeaways on how to use findings and theoretical frameworks from social science research, and discusses proposed next steps that were inspired by this transfer grant with the goal of learning from and facilitating connection across those working on related topics in other watersheds.

Speakers:

lindsey williams

Lindsey Williams, New Hampshire Sea Grant, University of New Hampshire

Lindsey Williams served as the project and technical lead for this transfer grant.  Lindsey is a social scientist and policy specialist with over 20 years of experience in research, teaching, and practice on ocean and coastal management issues. Her current work focuses on the science-policy interface, negotiation and consensus building, and collaborative processes particularly as they relate to coastal and environmental matters. Lindsey currently serves as the Associate Director of New Hampshire Sea Grant.

lynn vaccaro

Lynn Vaccaro, Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, New Hampshire Fish & Game

Lynn Vaccaro served as the collaborative co-lead for this grant, working to ensure that the project remained tied to the practitioner community needs and interests. Lynn has extensive training as an educator and a scientist and experience working with researchers, decision makers and local communities in the Great Lakes and New Hampshire Seacoast regions. Lynn currently serves as the Coastal Training Program Coordinator at the Great Bay Reserve. 

julia peterson

Julia Peterson, New Hampshire Sea Grant, University of New Hampshire

Julia Peterson served as the collaborative co-lead for this NERRS Science Collaborative transfer grant, working to help bridge academic research resources with practitioner community needs and interests. Julia works as an educator and outreach specialist focused on engaging with a broad range of audiences on water resource protection concepts and strategies and has experience partnering with social scientists on specific projects. Julia currently serves as the Extension Program Lead for New Hampshire Sea Grant. 

Katri Gurney

Katri Gurney, New Hampshire Sea Grant, University of New Hampshire

Katri Gurney joined the team after the completion of the grant but is working to help implement some of the project's next steps. Katri has experience in watershed conservation, environmental education, recreation and public access as well as non-profit management. Katri recently joined NH Sea Grant as a Community Engaged Graduate Research Fellow, also affiliated with the UNH Department of Natural Resources & the Environment.

Thu 11/20/2025, 2 - 3pm EST
Speaker(s):
Hannah Nicklay, Peter Birschbach, Euan Reevie, and Christopher Filstrup
Direct link to webinar »

The St. Louis River Estuary, located at the headwaters of Lake Superior, is nearing a major milestone: its anticipated delisting as a Great Lakes Area of Concern by 2030. Yet even as remediation and restoration successes are celebrated, new environmental stressors, particularly harmful algal blooms, raise concerns about the estuary’s long-term water quality health. In response, a group of local, state, federal, and Tribal partners - who have long worked in, cared for, and advocated for a coordinated monitoring effort within the estuary - began calling for a science-based monitoring strategy that could respond to emerging threats and support ongoing stewardship beyond delisting. This group of partners collaborated closely with the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve to shape a shared vision: a comprehensive program of observations, analyses, and public reporting that would protect remediation and restoration investments and inform future decision-making. 

The partners and project team developed a research approach that combined strong scientific design to build foundational understanding of phytoplankton dynamics with a focus on generating practical, actionable insights for a shared long term monitoring strategy. In this webinar, the project team will share more about predictors of cyanobacteria biovolume identified in the estuary and an actionable sampling approach they developed to improve bloom detection and efficient water quality monitoring into the future.

Speakers:

hannah nicklay

Hannah Nicklay, Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve

Hannah is the Monitoring Coordinator at the Lake Reserve, where she leads collaborative research to understand water quality, algal blooms, and coastal wetland change in the St. Louis River Estuary. Her work bridges monitoring and ecological research, integrating long-term datasets, field observations, and advanced statistical analyses to inform management of Great Lakes coastal systems. As project lead, Hannah emphasizes a collaborative style that builds trust, leverages diverse expertise, and connects science to management needs. She is passionate about translating research into practical tools and partnerships that help communities and ecosystems thrive along Lake Superior.

peter birschbach

Peter Birschbach, University of Minnesota Natural Resources Research Institute

Peter is an aquatic ecology researcher with interests including cyanobacteria bloom drivers, freshwater phytoplankton community dynamics, and monitoring program optimization. He joined this project as an incoming graduate student in the University of Minnesota-Duluth’s Water Resources Science program, and successfully defended his MSc in August 2025. Peter’s contributions to this project included field work, phytoplankton identification and enumeration, analyses of spatial and temporal monitoring redundancy and environmental predictors of cyanobacteria, and written reporting. 

euan reevie

Euan Reavie, University of Minnesota Natural Resources Research Institute

Dr. Reavie is a Senior Research Associate. Euan and his research team pursue research in applied aquatic studies on freshwater ecosystems, evaluating water quality issues. Routine work focuses on the use of algae as indicators of environmental changes. For this project, assessments of relationships between phytoplankton and water quality were a natural fit for his research profile.

chris filstrup

Christopher Filstrup, University of Minnesota Natural Resources Research Institute

Chris is a lake and stream scientist specializing in nutrient biogeochemical cycling, harmful algal bloom ecology, and aquatic ecosystem management strategies. His role on this project focused on helping determine the overall study design, analysis of water chemistry samples, and identifying drivers of cyanobacteria blooms in the St. Louis River Estuary.

Thu 10/30/2025, 3 - 4pm EDT
Speaker(s):
Andrew Wozniak and Mollie Yacano
Direct link to webinar »

Phragmites australis is an invasive grass species that affects many marshes along the U.S east coast, often displacing native grasses. Removing Phragmites has been a decades-long management goal as managers seek to restore native high marsh habitat and ecosystem functions and services. Phragmites removal and restoration efforts have proven beneficial for habitat and biodiversity – however, its removal comes with uncertainties about the tradeoffs of removal and the implications for achieving marsh restoration goals. One potential approach for managing tradeoffs associated with Phragmites removal is to use prescribed fire, which is a common method for vegetation removal. The burned biomass, or “biochar,” produced through this process may increase soil nitrogen removal and carbon and phosphorus storage, which can help to counteract losses in ecosystem services due to Phragmites removal.

In collaboration with regional coastal managers, this project compared salt marshes with and without a history of prescribed burns at Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve and area marshes to better quantify how fire impacts marshes and their biogeochemical ecosystem services. Recognizing that each manager prioritizes marsh ecosystem services differently, the project assessed how prescribed burns influence a range of recreational, physical, biological, and biogeochemical ecosystem services. A collaborative workshop brought together representatives from industry, state, federal, non-profit, and academic sectors for further conversation and to identify challenges and opportunities for effective Phragmites management. In this webinar, the project team shares: 1) an overview of their technical work to establish some of the biogeochemical impacts of prescribed burns in salt marsh ecosystems; 2) the results of their literature review assessing how prescribed burns to remove Phragmites impact a suite of salt marsh ecosystem services; and 3) the outcomes of the collaborative Phragmites management workshop.

Speakers:

wozniak

Andrew Wozniak, University of Delaware

Dr. Andrew Wozniak is an Associate Professor in the School of Marine Science Policy College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment at the University of Delaware. He is a marine organic geochemist who specializes in the characterization of complex natural organic matter using a variety of analytical techniques. Dr. Wozniak has particular interest in science that informs coastal and estuarine ecosystem management, including salt marshes. He served as the project and technical lead for this NERRS Science Collaborative project.

yacano

Mollie Yacano, Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control

Dr. Mollie Yacano is the Research Coordinator and Senior Environmental Scientist for Delaware’s Coastal Program.  She is responsible for overseeing Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve’s applied science and monitoring programs. She received her B.A. in Marine Science from Boston University and her PhD in Marine Sciences from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Dr. Yacano is a biogeochemist who specializes in nutrient cycling in coastal systems. She served as the collaborative lead on this NERRS Science Collaborative project. 

Wed 10/8/2025, 3 - 4pm EDT
Speaker(s):
Sarah Nuss and Lisa Lawrence
Direct link to webinar »

Discover how the Virginia Scientists and Educators Alliance (VA SEA) is transforming the way science reaches the classroom! Since 2015, this unique partnership has brought together graduate students from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) and other universities with K–12 teachers to turn cutting-edge research into creative, classroom-ready lesson plans.

To date, VA SEA has produced 86 teacher-vetted lessons that have been downloaded over 26,000 times in 172 countries. Graduate students gain hands-on experience in science communication and outreach, while teachers receive engaging, research-based resources to spark curiosity in their students—at no cost.

In this webinar, presenters share how VA SEA builds bridges between scientists, educators, and students, and see how this Virginia-grown idea has inspired similar efforts across the country.

Speakers:

sarah nuss

Sarah Nuss, Virginia Institute of Marine Science

Sarah Nuss, Director of VIMS Office of Outreach and Engagement, has spent the past 20 years  designing and leading education programs that connect students, teachers, and communities to the Chesapeake Bay and its coastal ecosystems. Her team’s work includes summer marine science camps, field-based learning experiences, and professional development for both K–12 educators and graduate students. Sarah’s research centers on how pre-service teacher training influences the integration of environmental education in schools, the role of experiential learning in shaping student and teacher outcomes, and the pathways that guide young people toward careers in ocean science. Sarah serves as Co-PI for VA SEA. 

lisa lawrence

Lisa Lawrence, Virginia Institute of Marine Science

Lisa Lawrence, Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives & Broader Impacts at VIMS, blends her background in fisheries science with a passion for making marine research matter to the public. She creates innovative resources for teachers, mentors graduate students in science communication including as Co-PI for VA SEA, and partners with researchers to amplify the real-world impact of their work. Her contributions have earned her national recognition, including awards from both the Mid-Atlantic and National Marine Educators Associations.

Tue 9/23/2025, 3 - 4:15pm EDT
Speaker(s):
Rachel Dacks, Jessica Brunacini, Shimi Rii, Ingrid Harrald, Luciana Ranelli, Kristen Goodrich, and Lauren Sutton
Direct link to webinar »

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) – or the non-material benefits that result from human relationships with the environment – support and maintain place-based values, worldviews, cultural identity, and well-being. Given their potential to reveal relationships between human and environmental well-being, the inclusion of CES in natural resource planning and decision making processes is critical to successful long-term stewardship and management strategies. Despite being one of four main categories of ecosystem services, CES are not often assessed due to a range of gaps in identification and evaluation methods.

This project addressed the need to fill these knowledge gaps by establishing a sustainable network of CES practitioners that support each other, engage others through their CES experiences, and share approaches for identifying and working within the unique socio-ecological contexts across the Reserve System. In this webinar, the project team showcased three examples, from their Resource Guide, that highlight how Reserves have engaged with CES across all sectors through internship and fellowship experiences, research protocols, and evaluation.

Please note: The duration of this webinar has been extended by 15 minutes to accommodate additional Q&A time at the end of the session.

Speakers:

rachel dacks

Rachel Dacks, University of Hawaiʻi

Rachel Dacks is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She is specifically interested in how monitoring and evaluation of conservation and resource management interventions can be guided by biocultural approaches, in order to reflect the wellbeing of the entire system. Rachel served as the project lead for this project.

jessica brunacini

Jessica Brunacini, Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve

Dr. Jessica Brunacini (she/her) is a coastal resilience scholar-practitioner who has nearly two decades of experience working in climate change engagement, planning, and research. She is especially interested in identifying engaged, equitable, and empathetic strategies for working with communities who are ready to begin talking about and planning for “getting out of harm’s way.” Jessica brought her expertise as Director of the Training and Engagement program  at Wells, as well as her experience as a Davidson Fellow to this project.

kristen goodrich

Kristen Goodrich, Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve

Kristen is an interdisciplinary social scientist and multicultural community counselor, interested in the human dimensions of coastal management. Kristen’s experiences with environmental protection in the U.S.-Mexico border region and focus on psychosocial resilience have provided the project unique perspectives on the challenges of – and opportunities for - engaging with CES in complex contexts.

ingrid harrald

Ingrid Harrald, Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve

Ingrid spent a large portion of her adult life on remote islands studying seabirds. She has worked as both a scientist and educator with many local organizations and is interested in how we can build community around our environment, sense of place, citizen science, and social justice in the sciences. Ingrid has a Masters in Social Work and her expertise in this field was important in this project when considering the wellbeing contributions of CES. 

luciana ranelli

Luciana Ranelli, Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve

Luciana's personal and professional life revolves around fostering connections among people, ideas, and place. She has demonstrated experience and leadership in environmental education at the local and national scale. Her passion for and experiences with social and environmental justice within environmental education were important perspectives in this project.

shimi rii

Shimi Rii, Heʻeia National Estuarine Research Reserve

Shimi coordinates research and monitoring with the overall goal of sustainably managing and restoring the He‘eia ahupua‘a. Her personal research interests lie in the diversity of organisms (specifically small protists and phytoplankton) in open ocean and reef environments, and how biodiversity relates to ecosystem functioning. Shimi is passionate about increasing diversity in STEM fields and  believes that increasing science literacy in the general public is crucial for our future. Shimi’s perspectives on community-guided and culturally informed research protocols were instrumental in this project.

lauren sutton

Lauren Sutton, Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve

As Research Coordinator, Lauren’s interests include using long-term environmental monitoring data to inform about biological communities, and understanding how diversity is influenced by Kachemak Bay’s dynamic climate. Lauren’s openness and interest in collaborating across disciplines and mentoring students have provided the project with insight on opportunities for engaging with CES in the Research sector.

Thu 9/4/2025, 3 - 4pm EDT
Speaker(s):
Kristen Goodrich, Empress Holliday, Fred Reppun, and Shimi Rii
Direct link to webinar »

Estuaries are an important link in the chain of trash becoming marine debris. Plastic and other anthropogenic marine debris alter aquatic ecosystems, contaminating waterways and impacting water quality and habitat resilience. Across the NERRS, marine debris is an issue of concern for reserves and their surrounding communities. A System-wide survey conducted by the Marine Debris workgroup after the 2019 NERRS/NERRA Annual Meeting revealed an overwhelming desire for NERRS staff to work across sectors on the issue of marine debris and develop coordinated long-term monitoring and public messaging to promote understanding, behavior-change, and policy actions. To address this need, this project facilitated four knowledge transfer workshops across reserves and with the greater Debris Community of Practice (DCoP). These workshops elevated and articulated the NERRS’s niche in addressing marine debris and provided a forum to develop a Roadmap that contains resources for Reserves and DCoP members to address marine debris in individual estuaries. 

In this webinar, the project team introduces the Roadmap and describe the process of its development, explores with participants how it might be applied in Reserve and other specific contexts, and shares insights on how the resource and community of practice can support reserves to make a meaningful impact on marine debris and better protect estuaries.

Speakers:

kristen goodrich

Kristen Goodrich, Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve

Kristen is the Director of Training and Engagement at the Tijuana River Reserve and an interdisciplinary social scientist. At TRNERR, she works to address marine debris in a cross-border context through boundary spanning and adaptive leadership models. She was motivated to apply those frameworks to this project by leveraging previous efforts among Reserves on plastics, convening a community of practice, and learning from the transfer team and partners involved in this effort.

empress holliday

Empress Holliday, Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve

Empress is an environmental geographer who has worked at TRNERR since 2021. Her work is a rich blend of focuses, with a key aspect being providing training and technical assistance for Tribal and non-Tribal coastal decision makers and community members in the U.S. and Mexico. As a core team member, Empress helped to develop the project deliverable, lead team meetings, and facilitate knowledge transfer workshops. 

fred reppun

Fred Reppun, Heʻeia National Estuarine Research Reserve

Fred is the Education Coordinator for the He’eia NERR, and offers place-based education for teachers and students. His background is in environmental science and agriculture. As a core team-member on this project, Fred helped to facilitate knowledge-transfer workshops and write the Roadmap.

shimi rii

Shimi Rii, Heʻeia National Estuarine Research Reserve

Shimi serves as the Research Coordinator for the Heʻeia NERR with a specialty in nutrient and phytoplankton dynamics in estuarine, coastal, and open ocean ecosystems. Shimi, together with Sylvia Yang at Padilla Bay Reserve, co-initiated the NERRS Plastics Working Group in 2019, and has since been working to elevate “plastics,” or marine debris as an issue of priority in the NERR system through the development of the Roadmap.