Interdisciplinary Physical Scientist Communications Coordinator

Expertise

•Blue Carbon/Ecosystem Service Valuation

•Consensus Building and Mediation

•Federal Grants Management

•Communication and Engagement

•Program Coordination

•Federal Contracts Management

Professional Experience

Environmental Protection Agency

5 Post Office Sq. Boston, MA 02109

October 2020 – September 2025

Title: Interdisciplinary Physical Scientist / Communications Coordinator for the Southeast New England Program (SNEP)

About: The Southeast New England Program (SNEP) is a geographic program in EPA Region 1 inclusive of Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts dedicated to ensuring thriving watersheds and natural lands, clean and healthy waters, and sustainable communities. SNEP receives regular appropriations from Congress and additionally received $15M over five years from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). Inclusive of BIL funding, SNEP receives $10M annually and has invested $58M in communities across Southeast New England since 2014.

Duties, Accomplishments, and Related Skills:

Manage multi-modal programmatic outreach and engagement across the EPA SNEP website, newsletter, public webinars, and workshops.

Planned and hosted two public symposia and one public forum – the largest of which featured 200 attendees and 28 presenters.

Increased readership of the SNEP newsletter and mailing list by 500% during my tenure.

Team leads for both the Ecosystem Services and Monitoring subcommittees. Regularly solicit and incorporate feedback from an interdisciplinary panel of scientists and practitioners on both subcommittees to better inform programmatic strategy and decision-making.

Conceptualized and developed the SNEP Equity Strategy, which was submitted to EPA HQ and approved without revision.

Led a series of six stakeholder engagement sessions to condense, conceptualize, and develop a programmatic strategy to meet the Justice40 requirements of the $15M in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding that SNEP received; and develop a programmatic definition for disadvantaged communities.

Successfully led a focused team of State, Local, and Professional salt marsh restoration permitting experts to develop a timeline to describe the existing salt marsh restoration permitting process in Massachusetts. This document is the first of its kind and is being featured by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Wetlands as a key resource. The document was recently featured in a newspaper article by the New Bedford Light.

Created and maintain a public-facing web mapping application to more clearly identify communities that meet the SNEP definition for disadvantaged communities.

As SNEP Team lead for equity and environmental justice, developed, conceptualized, and managed a $5M EJ-specific funding opportunity titled the SNEP Opportunity to Advance Resilience (SOAR) Fund. This RFP was the first of its kind for the Region and was specifically designed to improve access of disadvantaged communities to federal funding opportunities and to increase climate resiliency in disadvantaged communities. In response to community needs, this RFP utilizes several unique design elements to reduce the barriers to entry for first-time applicants by reducing the number of required application materials, removing match requirements, and including set-asides for first-time applicants. This Program was recognized by the Deputy Administrator of the EPA, Janet McCabe, and was slated to become an Agency-wide model on improving access to federal funding.

Personally briefed the Deputy Administrator of the EPA, Janet McCabe, on active Bipartisan Infrastructure Law grant projects and their environmental impacts during her visit to New Bedford, MA.

Personally briefed the Region 1 Water Division Director on the development of the SNEP Equity Strategy and the development of the SOAR Fund (previously mentioned).

Certified level 2 federal contracts officer representative (COR) overseeing $500k in federal contracts.

Designed project work statements for task orders totaling $800k in federal contracts.

Federal grants project officer, currently overseeing over $7.7M in EPA grants (inclusive of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding).

Designed, formatted, and contributed as co-author to the 2021 SNEP Congressional Report in response to a congressional request included in the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act.

Designed, formatted, and co-authored the 2021 – 2025 SNEP Strategic Plan.

Conceptualize, develop, and create an annual end-of-year summary to inform regional partners of major programmatic accomplishments.

Appointed by Branch Chief as climate lead for the Water Division in support of the development and maintenance of the regional climate action plan. Responsible for working directly with Branch Chief to collect updated performance metrics for each Divisional section to keep the Region 1 Climate Action Plan up to date.

Supervisor: MaryJo Feuerbach, EPA Region 1 ************@*****.***

Okay to contact this Supervisor: Upon Request.

Environmental Protection Agency

1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20004

June 2024 – September 2024

Title: Communications Lead

About: Under the charge of the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990, the Pollution Prevention (P2) Grants Program is a $24 million annual BIL-supported program to fund state and tribal programs to provide technical assistance to businesses to help them learn about and adopt source reduction practices. EPA uses these grants to help businesses reduce the use or release of hazardous materials, the use of water, energy, and other raw materials, while also lowering business costs.

Duties, Accomplishments, and Related Skills:

Developed and successfully enacted four (4) communications plans for P2 Week, P2 Regional Awards, P2 Grants, and the Annual P2 Conference.

Coordinated with regional P2 coordinators across ten EPA regions to successfully plan and host a P2 Regional Awards webinar, which announced the 17 award winners across the country.

Developed draft and final language for the P2 website for P2 Week and the P2 Regional Awards.

Developed two (2) press releases for P2 Week and the 2024 P2 Grants.

Regularly coordinated with regional P2 coordinators, HQ P2 staff, SPRKD Division Director and Deputy Director, OPPT Comms, and the OCSPP DAA, Jennie Romer.

Developed full talking points for SPRKD Division Director, Anahita Williamson for Green Chemistry Week and the P2 Regional Awards.

Coordinated with ERG (contractor) to oversee, develop, and finalize two project fact sheets.

Supervisor: Jeff Kohn, EPA Headquarters ****.*******@***.***

Okay to contact this Supervisor: Yes.

Environmental Protection Agency

1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20004

December 2023 – Present

Hours Per Week: 6

Title: Communications Support

About: The Environmentally Preferrable Purchasing Team in the EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention received $350 Million in Inflation Reduction Act funding to develop a low-carbon product label program, develop tools and guidance, provide grants and technical assistance, build a sustainable marketplace for low-carbon construction materials and products, and to guide $4.15 Billion in related spending by the U.S. General Services Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation.

Duties, Accomplishments, and Related Skills:

Part-time member of the communications team.

Conceptualized, developed, and working to implement a plan to rework and redesign the EPA web page to improve the Program’s capacity for public outreach and engagement.

Continue to assist Communications team in programmatic outreach, goal setting, web communication and web design.

Regularly attend and provide input on programmatic direction, where possible.

Supervisor: Stephan Sylvan, EPA Headquarters ******.*******@***.***

Okay to contact this Supervisor: Yes.

Environmental Protection Agency

5 Post Office Sq. Boston, MA 02109

October 2019 – October 2020

Hours Per Week: 20

Series: 1301 General Physical Science

Title: Pathways Student Intern – Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division

Pay Plan: GS-7 - General Schedule (Ch. 51, 5 U.S.C.).

Duties, Accomplishments and Related Skills:

Collaborated with a team to conduct a systematic review of all digitally submitted Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permits and was personally responsible for the review of 81 cities and towns across MA and NH.

Developed new enforcement strategies for Title V gasoline storage facilities with the Air Compliance Section.

Developed a novel approach for a review of general construction permits, which resulted in identifying a higher than typical number of construction sites out of compliance. This approach is still used to this day.

Supervisor: Denny Dart (retired)

Okay to contact this Supervisor: No, retired.

Education

Albany Law School Albany, NY August 2025 – December 2028

Juris Doctor – Online FlexJD Hybrid program

University of Massachusetts Boston Boston, MA September 2018 - August 2020

Master of Science – Environmental Science - 3.874 GPA (Dean's List)

Old Dominion University Norfolk, VA September 2014 – 2017

Bachelor of Science – Professional and Technical Writing – 3.78 GPA (Dean’s List, Honors)

Technology Skills

Skill Type

Specialized Software

Federal Grants Management

Next Generation Grants System (NGGS), Compass

Federal Contracts

Invoice Processing Platform (IPP), EPA’s Acquisition System (EAS), Acquisition Gateway, Market Research as Service (MRAS)

Geographic Information System (GIS) Mapping

ArcPro, ArcGIS Online, ArcMap, ArcGIS Web Builder, ArcGIS Web Experience, ArcGIS Storymaps

Web Design and Management

Canva, Drupal, WordPress, Squarespace, Google Analytics, MailChimp, SurveyMonkey, HootSuite

Data Visualization

RStudio, Qlikviz

Design and Editing

Adobe Premiere, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Acrobat Pro

General Administrative

Google Suite, Microsoft Office Suite

Research and Publications

First Author, PLOS Climate

“Fantastic wetlands and why to monitor them: Demonstrating the social and financial benefit potential of methane abatement through salt marsh restoration.” https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000317

2024

Co-Recipient, EPA Regional-ORD Applied Research Program (ROAR)

Office of Research and Development, EPA

2022

$150,000 Award - “The Role of Oyster Aquaculture to Promote Seagrass Production and Enhance Blue Carbon Storage in New England Estuaries.”

Recipient, Virtual Regional Research Partnership Program (R2P2)

Office of Research and Development, EPA

2021

“Fantastic Wetlands and Why to Monitor Them: Demonstrating the Social and Financial Benefit Potential of Methane Abatement and Carbon Sequestration through Salt Marsh Restoration in Massachusetts, U.S.A.”

Masters Thesis, University of Massachusetts Boston

Graduate Advisor: Dr. Robert E. Bowen, PhD

2020

“Utilizing Remote Sensing to Assess the Impacts of Water Quality on Housing Prices in Barnstable, MA

Undergraduate Researcher, Eastern Virginia Medical School

Advisor: Asima Haleem, MD

2015

"A comparison study to identify prevalence of IPV in Primary care practice by retrospective chart review and comparing it to screening results"

Certifications and Training (dates reflect first issuance – certifications remain current)

Level 2 Contract Officer Representative (COR-II)

2023

Level 1 Contract Officer Representative (COR-I)

2021

Federal Grant Project Officer (PO)

2020

Field Health and Safety Training for EPA Field Personnel

2019

Nationally Registered Emergency Medical Technician – Basic

2014

FEMA ICS 100

2013

FEMA ICS 200

2014

FEMA ICS 700

2013

FEMA ICS 800

2015

Awards and Recognition

Water Division Office Team Award – received for supporting the Southeast New England Program

2023

EPA Region 1 Environmental Justice Award - continuing to provide regional training on EJ-specific mapping resources inclusive of EJScreen, the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, and the IRA Disadvantaged Communities Map.

2022

Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society – ranked in the top 7.5% of my class in Junior year.

2016

Golden Key International Honors Society – cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher.

2015

Riverside Regional Medical Safety Star Award – recognized for catching signs of a stroke in a patient that was missed by hospital staff during transfer of care.

2015

Tau Sigma National Honors Society – GPA of 3.5 or higher during first semester of transfer year.

2015

Sigma Alpha Lambda National Honors Society – GPA of 3.0 or higher.

2015

University of Massachusetts Boston Civilian Service Award – recognized by UMass Boston for resuscitating an unconscious swimmer with positive outcomes while working as a lifeguard on campus.

2013

Alpha Lambda Delta National Honors Society – GPA of 3.5 or higher as a first-semester freshman.

2012

Eagle Scout, Boy Scouts of America – for completing all prerequisites pertaining to the rank of Eagle Scout.

2012

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