Another successful IMET Open House
On May 4th, IAN staff attended the IMET Open House event in Baltimore, MD. This event saw representatives from the UMCES Labs, local partners, and the Maryland area engaging with the public to inform about the amazing research and work being done in the Chesapeake Bay and Baltimore Harbor. The event spread over three floors of the building and was well attended by the public for its duration. Young attendees visited booths and completed their stamp passports, while also taking pictures with the R2-D2 replica brought by Maryland StemFest to celebrate Star Wars Day. IAN staff conducted a reduced version of the Listening Session model to learn how the public lives, works, and plays in the area and their visions for a sustainable Pataspco River.
Collaborating to create the Luangwa River Report Card
From April 28- May 17, Heath Kelsey, Alexandra Fries, and Lili Badri traveled to Zambia to work with WWF Zambia on the development of the Luangwa River Basin Report Card. In the first week, we hosted a report card training workshop in Lusaka, which allowed WWF and specific partners to learn about tools and techniques for stakeholder engagement, data analysis, and science communication. The following two weeks consisted of stakeholder workshops in Katete and Mpika where professionals across different sectors had the opportunity to create a shared vision for the Luangwa River Basin and identify and prioritize indicators to evaluate. This project will be our third collaboration with WWF Zambia, with previous projects including the Lower Kafue River Basin Report Card in 2019 and the Cuando River Basin Report Card in 2021. Stay tuned for a detailed workshop summary newsletter this summer.
Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative In-Person Meeting
On May 15th and 16th, Ann Foo and Sidney Anderson attended the in-person meeting for the Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative in Richmond, Virginia, hosted by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. This project, entering its fourth year, is a collaboration among Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia aiming to support water monitoring across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and make that data accessible to those interested in it. Members from each organization gather once a year to assess upcoming goals, new ideas, and strengthen the cooperative team.
Insights from the Choose Clean Water Conference
Last month, Sidney Anderson, Ann Foo, and Nathan Miller attended the Choose Clean Water Conference in Ellicott City, Maryland. Each year, representatives from riverkeeper organizations, universities, environmental advocacy non-profits, and government agencies from around the Chesapeake gather to share new research, network, and exchange ideas over how everyone’s collective work can improve both the ecology of the Bay and the communities that live in its watershed. Plus it’s a chance for everyone to collect really cool swag! Sidney, Ann, and Nathan attended as the IAN contingent of the Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative, which helps citizen scientists collect quality freshwater data in the Chesapeake tributaries. Their presentation, “Masters of Translation: Best Practices in Science Communication,” covered general principles of science communication and how to co-develop science communication products via stakeholder engagement. Attendees got the chance to practice their science communication skills during the presentation, as well through activities like “Conceptionary” and “Title Pursuit.”
IAN attends the UMCES Convocation and Commencement
The UMCES Convocation and Commencement activities were held at the Rita Rossi Colwell Center at the UMCES Institute for Marine and Environmental Technology in Baltimore on May 30 and 31. Activities included good discussion on visioning for the university and especially around the Chesapeake Global Collaboratory. IAN staff and faculty attending this year were Ms. Alexandra Fries, Mr. Nathan Miller, and Drs. Conor Keitzer, Heath Kelsey, Katie May Laumann, and Vanessa Vargas-Nguyen. One highlight was Alex receiving the 2024 President’s Award for Outstanding Research Support! Congratulations Alex!! Note Alex's daughter on stage with mom! The other highlight of course, was the commencement itself – 18 students received their degrees!
Welcome 2024 Global Sustainability Scholars!
We welcomed the 2024 cohort of Global Sustainability Scholars on May 25th. This year we have returning scholar Kameryn Overton, along with Taylor Ouellette and Bailee Porter. Taylor is a Master of Ecology student at UNC Chapel Hill interested in addressing challenges at the intersection of environmental and social sustainability. Kameryn is a recent graduate of Tuskegee University, where she studied Environmental Science. Bailee is a master’s student at Jacksonville University studying public policy and marine science. This summer, they will work with IAN to coordinate an educational stakeholder engagement event with a community science component, communicate those efforts through a story map, and evaluate current policy to inform governance-related indicators for Report Cards.